Good morning! Here is your news briefing for day , 2022
1.) THE DAILY SIGNAL
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January 7 2022
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Good morning from Washington, where the Supreme Court is set to hear arguments today about President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate. On Thursday, Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris both delivered speeches on the Jan. 6 riot. Fred Lucas looks at the claims in their remarks. What are the priorities for conservatives this year? Heritage Action’s Jessica Anderson shares where conservatives can move the needle. Plus: Mary Margaret Olohan on this year’s March for Life moving forward, and Harold Hutchison on the eerie silence of Jeffrey Epstein’s famous pals. |
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2.) THE EPOCH TIMES
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3.) DAYBREAK
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@DaybreakInsider
4.) THE SUNBURN
Sunburn — The morning read of what’s hot in Florida politics — 1.7.22
Wake up right: Get your scoops and other news about Florida politics.
Former Florida Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Ryan Matthews and governmental consultant Angela Drzewiecki are joining the Government Affairs and Lobbying Team at GrayRobinson.
The pair come to the firm from Peebles Smith & Matthews, a government and public affairs firm specializing in local government, utilities, environmental and infrastructure issues for the last 30 years.
“We are thrilled to have Ryan and Angela join GrayRobinson’s Government Affairs and Lobbying Team,” said GrayRobinson President and CEO Dean Cannon. “They bring in-depth knowledge of the function and operation of local governments, municipal utilities, and Florida’s regulatory and permitting processes, as well as the overall legislative process, which bolsters the legal and advocacy service offerings our robust team provides within these essential sectors.”
Matthews and Drzewiecki are bringing some clients, including the College of Florida Keys, Florida Chamber of Commerce, Florida Ground Water Association, Florida Municipal Insurance Trust, Florida Sheriffs Association, MetroPlan, Orlando Utilities Commission and Toho Water Authority.
They will also continue to serve clients represented by both firms, including the city governments of Kissimmee, Orlando and Tampa, as well as the Florida Association of Counties, Florida League of Cities, Florida Municipal Electric Association, Florida Municipal Power Agency, JEA, Monroe County and the Village of Islamorada.
Matthews joins GrayRobinson as a shareholder in the Tallahassee office, focusing on environmental, land use and local government issues. Drzewiecki, who joins GrayRobinson as a government consultant in the Tallahassee office, will focus on appropriations, law enforcement and general local government issues.
“Angela and I are delighted to be joining GrayRobinson,” he said. “Having worked with Dean Cannon and members of the firm over the years, we are proud to become a part of a team whose caliber of service consistently ranks them among the top producing and most highly acclaimed lobbying and law firms in Florida.”
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For many, today is the last Friday before all hell breaks loose in Tallahassee.
For Ron Pierce, he’ll be celebrating his birthday — the last one before the big 5-0.
Although RSA Consulting may have just celebrated its 13th birthday, Ron has been part of the Tallahassee scene for nearly 25 years, building a reputation as one of the hardest-working (and most genuine) people in The Process.
Please join me in wishing Ron a very happy birthday!
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The Florida Chamber Foundation will hold its 2022 Economic Outlook & Jobs Solution Summit virtually this afternoon, delivering viewers an in-depth look at where the state economy stands and where it could be at the dawn of the next decade.
The summit launches at 1 p.m. and will feature talks by some of the top experts in the business community. After opening remarks from Florida Chamber President Mark Wilson, Wells Fargo Senior Economist Mark Vitner will overview the national economic landscape.
A dozen other talks and discussions follow. One panel, titled “Demand Outpaces Supply: When There Are More Open Jobs Than Talent,” will feature Polk State College President Angela Garcia Falconetti, St. Petersburg College President Dr. Tonjua Williams, and Miami-Dade College Madeline Pumariega.
Later, Susan Fiorito, a professor and dean at FSU’s Jim Moran College of Entrepreneurship, will discuss the rise of entrepreneurship with Shane Smith, the Central Florida Director for the Jim Moran Institute for Global Entrepreneurship.
As with other Florida Chamber events, the organization will use the opportunity to showcase its extensive economic research — Chamber Foundation EVP David Gillespie is set to deliver an update on the organization’s workforce research, and Sean Snaith, the director of UCF’s Institute for Economic Forecasting, is slated to detail the Florida Chamber Foundation’s 2022 Economic Forecast.
A full agenda and registration details for the 2022 Economic Outlook & Jobs Solution Summit are available online.
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The new year brought a new name for the Florida Children’s Council, which this week rebranded as the Florida Alliance of Children’s Councils and Trusts, or FACCT for short.
FACCT is a nonprofit organization that serves as the statewide umbrella organization for the Children’s Services Councils and Trusts. It engages with businesses, agencies, and other key stakeholders to support Florida’s children, youth and families.
The organization pools the collective strengths of individual Children’s Services Councils and Trusts to advocate for sound, evidence-based statewide policies such as prevention and early intervention systems.
United under “a new purpose-driven name,” the organization said it will continue to provide data-driven “FACCTs” based on statewide and local outcomes to Florida decision-makers, business leaders, agencies, and communities to ensure children are healthy, educated, and prepared for a successful future.
Along with the new name comes a new logo that invokes FACCT’s “cradle to career” approach to child welfare — literally — by illustrating an infant, child, graduate, and briefcase-carrying worker standing side-by-side at sunrise.
More information on the organization and its work is available on FACCT.com.
— SITUATIONAL AWARENESS —
—@RepValDemings: Honoring this evening all who protected democracy, and our Capitol on that tragic day 1 year ago. My prayers remain with the victims, my fellow members of Congress, staff and our Capitol police. God bless America.
—@marcorubio: The upscale liberals who control the media and Democrat party believe Jan 6th was another Pearl Harbor or 9/11. And the rest of America, including many Democrats, think they are nuts
—@RepStephMurphy: To see so many of my colleagues attempt to whitewash the events of #January6th is disheartening. How can you take them seriously as legislators when they sow disinformation and undercut our Constitution?
—@RepGregSteube: Today @VP made history as a national disgrace. Nearly 3,000 people died on 9/11, and about 2,400 were killed at the attack of Pearl Harbor. Her blatant disregard for the legitimacy of those tragedies by correlating them to 1/6 is reprehensible.
—@DarrenSoto: I was in the chamber on #January6th and saw the violent insurrection firsthand. Tonight, I was proud to stand with our constituents in #FL9 as we remember this terrible tragedy. Together we will defend our democracy!
—@ShevrinJones: You have to be a sick person to compare the #January6th insurrection to the demonstrations that took place after the killing of a Black man. Let’s be clear, if Black/Brown people would have stormed the Capitol, they would still be cleaning the blood from the stairs, TODAY!
—@SpencerRoachFL: Jan 6th, 2021: a day to be commemorated, not celebrated. A mob defiled the Capitol, literally (by smearing feces on the walls & in the halls) & figuratively (by disrupting the peaceful transfer of power for the first time in the 246-year history of our Republic.) Never again.
—@KKFla37: (Ron) DeSantis this AM shows again he’s much more in tune with the GOP base than (Donald) Trump is. In reference to Jan. 6 he discussed the FBI, the corporate media, the DC/NYC elites, Nancy Pelosi, Floridians don’t care, etc. He’s perfectly Nixonian in the themes he hits. DeSantis actually went to Harvard not Whittier but he seems to be Nixon reincarnated in so many ways. Cultural tough talk, pushes the right’s buttons about elites, the media & the Northeast while compiling a record that is ideologically inconsistent.
—@ScottMorrisonMP: Mr. (Novak) Djokovic’s visa has been canceled. Rules are rules, especially when it comes to our borders. No one is above these rules. Our strong border policies have been critical to Australia having one of the lowest death rates in the world from COVID; we are continuing to be vigilant.
NFL season ends — 2; 2022 Legislative Session starts — 4; Florida’s 20th Congressional District Election — 4; Special Elections in Senate District 33, House District 88 & 94 — 4; Florida Chamber’s 2022 Legislative Fly-In and Reception — 4; Florida TaxWatch’s 2022 State of the Taxpayer Day — 5; Joel Coen’s ’The Tragedy of Macbeth’ on Apple TV+ — 7; NFL playoffs begin — 8; ‘Ozark’ final season begins — 14; ‘Billions’ begins — 16; Red Dog Blue Dog charity event — 18; XXIV Olympic Winter Games begins — 28; Super Bowl LVI — 37; season two of “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’ begins — 423; ‘The Walking Dead’ final season part two begins — 44; Daytona 500 — 44; Special Election for Jacksonville City Council At-Large Group 3 — 47; CPAC begins — 49; St. Pete Grand Prix — 49; ‘The Batman’ premieres — 56; the third season of ‘Atlanta’ begins — 75; season two of ‘Bridgerton’ begins — 77; The Oscars — 79; federal student loan payments will resume — 114; ’Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’ premieres — 119; ’Top Gun: Maverick’ premieres — 140; ’Platinum Jubilee’ for Queen Elizabeth II — 146; ’Thor: Love and Thunder’ premieres — 183; San Diego Comic-Con 2022 — 194; ‘The Lord of the Rings’ premieres on Amazon Prime — 238; ’Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse’ sequel premieres — 273; ‘Black Panther 2’ premieres — 308; ‘The Flash’ premieres — 311; ‘Avatar 2’ premieres — 343; ‘Captain Marvel 2’ premieres — 406; ‘John Wick: Chapter 4’ premieres — 441; ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’ premieres — 567; ‘Dune: Part Two’ premieres — 651; Opening Ceremony of the 2024 Olympic Games — 931.
— TOP STORY —
“On Jan. 6 anniversary, Joe Biden calls out Donald Trump for ‘web of lies’ about 2020 election” via John Wagner, Amy B Wang, Mariana Alfaro, Eugene Scott and Felicia Sonmez of The Wall Street Journal — President Biden decried the violent mob of Trump supporters who breached the Capitol a year ago, saying that “democracy was attacked” and urging Americans to ensure such an attack “never, never happens again.” Biden took direct aim at former President Trump, who he said could not accept his loss and “created and spread a web of lies about the 2020 election.” In a searing speech, Biden vowed to defend American democracy and said Jan. 6 represents not its end but rather a rebirth of “liberty and fair play.” Democratic House leaders have planned a full day of commemorative activities, including testimonials from lawmakers, commentary from historians and a prayer vigil. Most Republicans are not participating in the day’s events.
To watch part of Biden’s speech, click on the image below:
Video Player
— STATEWIDE —
“‘This is their Christmas’: DeSantis jabs at news media on Jan. 6 anniversary” via Jason Delgado of Florida Politics — DeSantis lashed out Thursday at Democrats and the news media, saying they plan to use the anniversary of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot as an opportunity to “smear” Trump supporters. “This is their Christmas,” he told reporters at a morning news conference in West Palm Beach. DeSantis characterized the D.C. and New York “journalist class” as obsessed with the incident. He also lambasted pundits and others who equate the riot to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack. Hijackers killed 2,996 Americans during the 2001 attack. Five died and 150 officers were injured during the Jan. 6 riot. “It’s not something that I’ve been concerned about in my job because, quite frankly, it’s not something that most Floridians are concerned about,” the Republic governor added.
“DeSantis, Tucker Carlson, Joe Rogan: Jimmy Patronis wants feds to turn over discussions about the trio” via Jason Delgado of Florida Politics — Patronis is seeking answers as to why the Biden administration throttled shipments of monoclonal antibodies to Florida. Patronis filed a record request about a slew of federal leaders, asking for any correspondence about the coveted post-infection treatment. He is also seeking public records containing conversations about DeSantis, Rogan and Carlson, among more than a dozen figures, state agencies and news outlets. Those three, notably, are among the more outspoken critics of the federal government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. The request applies to messages sent between 17 high-ranking federal employees, including Chief Medical Officer Dr. Anthony Fauci, National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins and White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain, among others. “If they’re conspiring to hold back lifesaving drugs, we’ll find out,” Patronis tweeted.
“DeSantis blasts NASCAR’s ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ rejection” via A.G. Gancarski of Florida Politics — DeSantis waded into yet another controversy regarding the NASCAR driver who first elicited the infamous “Let’s Go Brandon” chant. NASCAR rejected the attempt by cryptocurrency coin LGBCoins.io to sponsor the car of driver Brandon Brown. LGB is shorthand for “Let’s Go, Brandon,” which is a phrase opponents of the President have adopted to mean “F*** Joe Biden.” A NASCAR source told CBS that Brown and the company both knew the sponsorship and its “derogatory and vulgar euphemism” would be rejected weeks ago. But DeSantis framed the rejected sponsorship as a reflection of language “sanitized” in the service of the current President. “It’s as much a rebuke to some of the corporate media out there as it is to Biden himself,” DeSantis said.
“DeSantis out of breath in video prompts COVID-19 speculation” via Brendan Cole of Newsweek — On Wednesday, was in Kissimmee, Osceola County, to announce that nearly $10 million would be awarded to support semiconductor and other tech manufacturing. But as DeSantis stood at the podium behind a sign that read “Manufacturing Florida’s future,” his voice wavered as he spoke. A video of the news conference has been widely shared, with some suggesting that his apparent difficulty in getting to the end of sentences was caused by a COVID-19 infection. There has been no official confirmation that he has the virus.
“FPL makes unusual public attack on Miami Herald after solar power coverage” via David Ovalle of the Miami Herald — Florida Power & Light has launched an unusual public attack on the Miami Herald and its senior Tallahassee reporter over coverage of the utility company’s lobbying on solar power policy, criticism the paper’s top editor called “unfair.” FPL this week published a piece on its website criticizing the news organization for not posting the entirety of an editorial opinion piece written in response to a Dec. 20 Miami Herald story co-authored by Capitol Bureau chief Mary Ellen Klas about the company’s role in preparing legislation affecting rooftop solar power generation in Florida. FPL’s post was titled: “Truth Matters: Why is the Miami Herald afraid to let its readers hear opposing voices?” In a statement issued Wednesday, Herald Executive Editor Monica Richardson defended Klas and the paper’s reporting and said the state’s largest utility company “has crossed the line into an unfair attack.”
“Virtual reality charter school shows off technology at digital launch event” via Jacob Ogles of Florida Politics — America’s first virtual reality charter school will start classes on Aug. 22. Erika Donalds, the founder of Optima Classical Academy, said students can begin enrolling in a lottery to get a digital seat in the classroom at the high-tech endeavor. At a virtual news conference, Donalds, through a 3D rendered avatar, said this type of virtual instruction will be unlike anything students have experienced, whether during the pandemic or before it. “Parents have been upset at substandard virtual offerings made available during the pandemic,” Donalds said. “This is the gold standard,” she added.
“Man’s greed and ignorance choked this Florida river to near ruin but rescue plan underway” via Kimberly Miller of the Palm Beach Post — An untouchable reserve of freshwater will be earmarked for South Florida’s only nationally recognized wild and scenic river under restoration plans up for discussion early this year. In public workshops that begin Jan. 25, South Florida Water Management District officials will review how water will be restricted from future use to replenish the Loxahatchee River, which has gagged on saltwater flushes from the Atlantic Ocean since roads and homes scarred its natural watershed. Lawrence Glenn, the district’s division director for water resources, said protecting the future water needed for the restoration is a routine part of the process required by the Army Corps of Engineers.
“Decades later, EPA still working on cleanup of Florida’s ‘Mount Dioxin’” via Craig Pittman of Florida Phoenix — Across the country, the EPA is now dealing with 1,571 Superfund sites. New Jersey has 114, more than any other state. Florida doesn’t lag far behind with 92. The Superfund site I want to talk to you about is pretty nasty on several levels. Hold your nose while I tell you the tangled tale of the Escambia Wood Treating Company. It was bad because the EPA itself screwed up the cleanup. The agency ended up having to relocate about 400 households from the neighborhoods around the site. this is just one Superfund site. There are 91 more in Florida, each one with its own story of official incompetence, political influence and corporate greed.
— DATELINE TALLY —
“Nikki Fried bashes bill that would remove DEP head from Cabinet vetting” via A.G. Gancarski of Florida Politics — Fried is criticizing a new bill drafted in the Florida Senate that would remove Cabinet review from the confirmation of the head of the Department of Environmental Protection. SB 1658, filed Thursday by Sen. Aaron Bean, would streamline the confirmation process for acting Secretary Shawn Hamilton. The measure removes the requirement that the appointment of the Secretary of Environmental Protection be subject to the concurrence of three members of the Cabinet. The Bean bill contemplates no other changes. The Senate would still confirm the Governor’s appointee. With three Republicans and one Democrat in the Cabinet, the outcome of a confirmation vote may not be in doubt. Nevertheless, Fried sees the attempt to sidestep Cabinet review as another attempt by DeSantis to diminish her role.
“Democrats want to verify Florida’s Holocaust and slavery history lessons are up to par” via Anne Geggis of Florida Politics — As DeSantis raised issues about how children learn history, Democrats are introducing legislation that would penalize schools that don’t properly teach African American and Holocaust history. Under the bill, private schools, charter schools and public-school districts would be required to submit evidence to the state that the topics are being taught as state standards dictate. Sen. Lori Berman filed the Senate version (SB 1398). Rep. Geraldine Thompson filed the House version (HB 51), with Rep. Anna Eskamani serving as a co-sponsor.
“Central Florida lawmakers say redistricting, budget and gathering in Tallahassee safely are key Session issues” via Scott Powers of Florida Politics — The 2022 Legislative Session will be dominated by the passage of the state budget and redistricting maps, perhaps sucking up most of the Session’s air. But lawmakers also think that just being there in an open Capitol may become a big challenge too. That was something of a consensus for four lawmakers during a 2022 Legislative Session preview roundtable hosted by the Tiger Bay Club of Central Florida Thursday. Everyone shared their wish lists, except Dennis Baxley, who predicted that the budget and the redistricting maps would be plenty. Hawkins hopes to push through his bill to facilitate electrocardiogram testing in high school athletes (HB 59) and promote semiconductor technologies.
“Senate accuses ACLU of Florida lawyer of violating redistricting rules” via Mary Ellen Klas of the Tampa Bay Times — The Florida Senate has accused a staff attorney of the ACLU of Florida of misinformation after he appeared as a private citizen before a redistricting committee to present a map he had drawn but failed to identify his employer, which had no role in the submission. Senate Committee chairperson Ray Rodrigues sent a memo to all 40 senators on Nov. 22 accusing Nicholas Warren of violating Senate rules when he presented his map at a Nov. 17 committee meeting without identifying himself as a staff attorney for the ACLU of Florida. Warren testified that he submitted the map to show the committee it was possible to avoid putting two Black communities on opposite sides of Tampa Bay into the same Senate district.
“Outgoing Sen. Jeff Brandes still chasing a legacy in prison reform” via Romy Ellenbogen of the Tampa Bay Times — In 2014, a Department of Corrections official stood before a panel of lawmakers and described how prison guards had walked an inmate into a scalding hot shower and left him there, pleading, as his skin peeled off. The Republican Senator from St. Petersburg listened in disbelief. Newly minted as a member of the criminal justice committee, he felt out of place. It wasn’t his expertise. Senate leaders put him on the committee anyway. Over the next few years, Brandes went from a tourist in Florida’s criminal justice world to an authority determined to make a sweeping change to what he saw as a crisis.
— MORE TALLY —
“Proposed legislation would compel Governor to move faster on legislative vacancies” via Anne Geggis of Florida Politics — The Governor’s power to set special election dates would get clipped according to a bill proposed Thursday from lawmakers spurred to action after an unprecedented delay in getting current vacancies filled. Since U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings died last April, DeSantis’ has not moved to set election dates until lawsuits asked a judge to force him to act. The result: The longest congressional vacancy in U.S. history, according to some analyses, and early voting that started on New Year’s Day 2022, a postal holiday. State Sen. Tina Polsky and State Rep. Ben Diamond announced they’d filed companion bills (SB 1586 and HB 1217) to get DeSantis and subsequent Governors moving faster. The bills call for a Special Election no later than 180 days after a vacancy has occurred.
“Proposed bill would take away car dealer requirement to transfer title within 30 days” via Shannon Behnken of WFLA — When you buy a vehicle in Florida, the law requires dealers to apply to transfer the title into your name within 30 days. If they don’t, the state can fine the dealer or even suspend or revoke their license. This law gives regulators the power to help make sure consumers can register their cars in their names. But Sen. Tom Wright filed a bill that would take that requirement away, and critics say it gives more power to dealers and curt consumers. Senate Bill 1346 would amend existing legislation so that a dealer no longer “must” obtain a title in the purchaser’s name. Instead, the bill would replace “must” with “should.” The proposed legislation literally strikes out words that give the state regulators power. Pasco County Tax Collector Mike Fasano, whose office processes titles, was stunned when notified of this bill.
“Step Up For Students gets another clean bill of health” via reimaginED — For the seventh year in a row, the Florida Auditor General reported no major findings in its annual operational audit of Step Up For Students, the nonprofit scholarship-funding organization that administers scholarships for low-income students, bullied students, and those with special needs. The 2020-21 operational audit examined the period between March 2020 and February 2021, covering the 2019-20 and 2020-21 school years. During this period, Step Up For Students paid $610.1 million in Florida Tax Credit Scholarships (FTC); $338.9 million for the Family Empowerment Scholarship (FES); $134 million for the Gardiner Scholarship; $2.5 million for the Hope Scholarship; and $2.1 million for the Reading Scholarship.
— CORONA FLORIDA —
“COVID-19 update: Testing rate hits record high as Florida reports 67,369 new cases and over 8,500 hospitalizations” via David Schutz of the Tampa Bay Times — Florida reported 67,369 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday as daily testing reached record levels, according to data from the CDC. A record 146,665 tests are being reported on average per day as of Dec. 29, the most recent data available for testing rates. The rise in testing has driven the state’s average daily cases to a record every day for 12 consecutive days, reaching 56,595 as of Thursday. Miami-Dade County’s average daily case rate of 3,678 per 100,000 population is the second-highest of the nation’s 3,143 counties reporting data to the CDC. Richmond County in New York, which includes Staten Island in New York City, has the highest rate.
“Florida COVID-19 update: Rolling seven-day case average decreases for first time in 26 days” via Devoun Cetoute of the Miami Herald — Florida on Thursday reported 66,611 additional COVID-19 cases and 80 more deaths to the CDC. The significant increases came from the CDC backlogging cases and deaths for Florida on Mondays and Thursdays when multiple days in the past had their totals changed. In August, Florida began reporting cases by the “case date” rather than the date the case was logged in to the system, resulting in several cases backfilling over time. As the omicron version of the virus has circulated in the past seven days, the state has added 20 deaths and 56,611 cases per day on average, according to Herald calculations. This is the first time the rolling seven-day case average has decreased since Dec. 10., when the average was 1,700. On Wednesday, the average was 58,216.
“DeSantis on his need for a COVID-19 test: ‘I’d only test if I had symptoms.’” via Cindy Krischer Goodman of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel — Afterspent a few minutes sounding short of breath, he paused at a news briefing Wednesday to tell his audience “excuse me” while quickly moving his head and recomposing himself. DeSantis’ appearance sparked questions across social media about whether the Governor needed to get himself tested for COVID-19. But on Thursday, he said he was symptom-free and feeling fine. Testing hasn’t been necessary, he said, a position that coincides with him advocating that testing be done only for people with symptoms from the highly contagious virus. The Governor has held multiple news conferences across Florida this week, appearing without a mask at the lectern while standing in the company of the directors of his key agencies.
Tweet, tweet:
“DeSantis announces 1 million at-home COVID-19 tests will go to seniors, ignores vaccines” via Chris Persaud and Katherine Kokal of The Palm Beach Post — The state plans to send up to 1 million at-home COVID-19 test kits to nursing homes and “senior-heavy” communities across Florida, DeSantis announced Thursday at a nursing home in West Palm Beach. He also discouraged asymptomatic younger people from using them. “If you’re just young and healthy, you don’t need to be going out and getting tested every day,” DeSantis said at the Rehabilitation Center of the Palm Beaches. He noted that seniors are more likely to “parlay” a positive test result into getting treatment.
“‘Recipe for disaster’: Florida Department of Health releases new COVID-19 testing guidelines that contradict CDC’s” via Caroline Catherman of the Orlando Sentinel — Days after Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo said he would prioritize “high value” testing, the Florida Department of Health released new COVID-19 guidance that contradicts the CDC and recommends fewer people get tested. The CDC recommends people get tested if they have had close contact with someone with COVID-19, if they have COVID-19 symptoms, or if they are not fully vaccinated. It notes that people can spread COVID-19 even if asymptomatic, so testing is crucial. Public health experts worry the new Florida DOH guidelines, released in a one-page document on Thursday, could exacerbate the current COVID-19 surge.
“COVID-19 testing recommended for symptomatic residents who are elderly, pregnant or immunocompromised, but not others” via Christine Jordan Sexton of Florida Politics — Surgeon General Ladapo released COVID-19 testing “guidance and recommendations” that he says are meant to “maximize the benefits of COVID-19 testing in Florida,” although they are not binding on any health care providers. Ladapo recommended that people who are at increased risk of severe illness and who have COVID-19 symptoms get tested after the onset of symptoms. He said they should seek early monoclonal antibody or antiviral drug treatment and other medical treatment, as necessary. Under Ladapo’s guidance, testing is optional for symptomatic people who are not at an increased risk for severe illness. The guidelines also recommend that people infected with COVID-19 and who are symptomatic “should avoid contact with others.”
“Up to 80% of Florida will have caught COVID-19 by end of omicron wave, UF report says” via Marlei Martinez of WESH — Most of the state’s population will become infected with coronavirus in the latest omicron wave. UF biostatisticians have been studying the way that the omicron variant behaves. They say data shows that omicron is twice as infectious as delta and spreads quicker, too. “So, you combine those two things, and you get a very fast, large epidemic,” said Ira Longini. Longini is a UF professor and one of the researchers who worked on the report. So, how large of an epidemic are they predicting? “Probably 70 to 80% of the state will either get infected in this wave or have been infected in a prior wave,” Longini said.
“First cruise cancellations hit as every U.S. ship now under COVID-19 watches” via Richard Tribou of the Orlando Sentinel — As the omicron variant of COVID-19 rages across the U.S., the spread has forced at least one cruise line to call off some sailings from Florida. Norwegian Cruise Line said it had canceled the remainder of an 11-night Panama Canal sailing of the Norwegian Pearl that departed Miami on Monday as well as a planned nine-night Caribbean sailing of the Norwegian Getaway from Miami “due to COVID-19 related circumstances.” The ships are not alone, with the CDC monitoring case reports onboard every vessel sailing with passengers from the U.S. The CDC stated that for the two weeks from Dec. 15-29, all cruise lines reported 5,013 COVID-19 cases, compared to 162 from Nov. 30-Dec. 14.
— CORONA LOCAL —
“COVID-19 update: Testing rate hits record high as Orange County positivity rate climbs to over 40%” via David Schutz of the Orlando Sentinel — Orange County remained the county with the state’s highest average positivity rate as Florida reported 67,369 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday and daily testing reaching record levels, according to data from the CDC. A record 146,665 tests are being reported on average per day as of Dec. 29, the most recent data available for testing rates. The rise in testing has driven the state’s average daily cases to a record every day for 40 consecutive days, revised CDC data shows, reaching 56,595 as of Thursday. On Wednesday, 8,532 patients in Florida hospitals had COVID-19, the highest number since Sept. 19 and a nearly fourfold increase since Christmas, data shows.
“Archdiocese of Miami: Masks required for Mass and schools” via The Associated Press — The Archdiocese of Miami is requiring masks again for anyone attending Mass or school as COVID-19 infections spike across South Florida. An archdiocese statement issued Wednesday says the mask requirement affects all Mass services and church gatherings across its 109 parishes. A similar requirement was reimposed for students and staff at Catholic schools in South Florida on Jan. 1, before classes resumed following the holidays. “We need to be cautious, and we need to be proactive,” Mary Ross Agosta, a spokeswoman said. “We believe that wearing a mask and social distancing can help prevent the spread.” Archbishop Thomas Wenski had lifted the mask requirement for fully vaccinated parishioners in November as coronavirus caseloads dropped significantly following a summer wave caused by the delta variant of COVID-19.
“MacDill AFB raises health alert level as COVID-19 cases rise” via Stephen Adams of WTSP — MacDill Air Force Base is raising the alarm in response to the rising number of COVID-19 cases in the Tampa Bay region and on base. Citing an 800% communitywide jump in new cases — primarily due to the omicron variant, the commander is raising the military installation’s health protection condition level. Citing an 800% communitywide jump in new cases — mostly due to the omicron variant, the commander is raising the military installation’s health protection condition level. The level is being taken from HPCON Bravo+, which indicates moderate community transmission, to HPCON Charlie, recognizing “sustained” and substantial transmission. Due to the update, MacDill further limits gatherings and limits dining to takeout only.
“Cleveland Clinic Florida postpones non-urgent surgeries as COVID-19 surges, visits limited” via Michelle Marchante of the Miami Herald — Cleveland Clinic is postponing all non-urgent surgeries that require an overnight stay at all of its Florida hospitals, including its Weston campus, to help make room for ill patients and alleviate a strained workforce that is amid a staffing shortage. Hospitals affected by this change include: Cleveland Clinic Weston Hospital, Cleveland Clinic Martin South Hospital, Cleveland Clinic Martin North Hospital, Cleveland Clinic Tradition Hospital, Cleveland Clinic Indian River Hospital. Currently, surgeries and procedures at its outpatient surgery or endoscopy centers will not be postponed, Cleveland Clinic Florida said Thursday. Cleveland Clinic has outpatient centers in Broward, Palm Beach, Martin, St. Lucie and Indian River counties.
“Your trash hasn’t been picked up yet? COVID-19 is delaying service in South Florida” via Lisa J. Huriash of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel — Garbage haulers say their trash pickups are falling behind schedule because of COVID-19, reeling from an “unprecedented number of staff out.” Already, many people across South Florida are experiencing delays. Republic Services, a garbage hauler that serves several cities in Broward, is among those figuring out how to keep up with service. Coconut Creek city spokeswoman Yvonne Lopez said it was a “regional problem” and blamed the omicron variant of the coronavirus. “Due to staffing shortages, Republic Services is running behind on some services.” She said delays in both garbage and bulk pickup were expected over the next two weeks “as they are working on additional resources to eliminate their current challenges.”
— 2022 —
“DeSantis top ‘second choice’ for GOP 2024 voters in another poll” via A.G. Gancarski of Florida Politics — Yet another survey shows that Republican Primary voters would prefer DeSantis as their 2024 nominee if Trump decides not to run again. While Trump was the preferred candidate among 55% of the 306 Republicans surveyed in a December poll from the University of Massachusetts, DeSantis was the runner-up. DeSantis had 20% backing as a “first choice” candidate. Ambassador Nikki Haley’s 7% was good for third place. When respondents were asked who their “second choice” candidate was, they liked DeSantis even more. The survey showed 37% of those polled picked DeSantis, with Sen. Ted Cruz at 15% in second place for the second choice. Trump and former Vice President Mike Pence tied for third place, with 13%.
“How will messaging about Jan. 6 attacks affect outcome of 2022 midterm election?” via Alex Roarty of the Miami Herald — Last year’s attack on the U.S. Capitol left an indelible scar on politics in Washington and laid bare the country’s growing threat of political violence. That doesn’t mean it’ll have a big influence on the next election. In the year since the Jan. 6 riot, Democrats have grudgingly accepted that the unprecedented attack has been marginalized as an issue for many key voters, overtaken by broader kitchen-table concerns about the rising cost of living and culture war-inflected battles over schools and coronavirus restrictions. Even if the party continues to talk about the attack, as Biden did during a speech Thursday in the Capitol marking the anniversary, Democratic strategists are skeptical it’ll play more than a minor role on the campaign trail later this year.
“Nikki Fried to Floridians after COVID-19 tests expire: ‘You need a better leader’” via Jason Delgado of Florida Politics — Fried apologized to Floridians Thursday after the leader of Florida’s pandemic response confirmed up to 1 million unused COVID-19 tests expired in state custody. Fried’s apology came hours after Division of Emergency Management (DEM) Director Kevin Guthrie confirmed the expiration. A longtime critic of DeSantis, Fried accused the Republican Governor of reckless leadership amid the pandemic. She also characterized the incident as the latest example in a long line of leadership failures. DeSantis, she argued, has proved himself “ill-prepared” to manage the state. News of the expiring tests came to light in late December after Fried published a warning on social media.
Dennis Ross contemplates return to Congress — Ross’ former chief of staff Anthony Foti confirms to Florida Politics that the one-time conservative lawmaker is putting plans in motion to return to Congress. For eight years (2011-2019), Ross represented Florida’s 12th Congressional District — later changed to CD 15 — which covered Brandon, Plant City, Lakeland, and Bartow. In 2018, he announced he would not seek re-election. After leaving Congress, Ross became a distinguished professor of political science at Southeastern University and launched the American Center for Political Leadership (ACPL) in the Jannetides College of Business and Entrepreneurial Leadership.
“Jayer Williamson announces he will not pursue re-election in 2022” via Tristan Wood of Florida Politics — Rep. Williamson announced Thursday he will not be seeking re-election in 2022 and will be stepping away from politics. In a statement, Williamson said he had been approached with ideas of running for Congress, state Senate and Agriculture Commissioner over the past year. However, he decided to step out of the political arena after spending the holiday season reflecting, praying, and having conversations with his family. While the decision is a lot to process, it was easy for him to make. In his statement, Williamson also took shots at unnamed public officeholders “at every level” that “have created and perpetuated a toxic political environment far removed from the fact that we are elected to serve the public.”
Happening Monday:
and
HD 11 candidate’s campaign website skirts election rules — Republican Emily Nunez launched a primary campaign against incumbent Rep. Cord Byrd this week, but her fundraising operation is raising eyebrows. Nunez, an acolyte of Rep. Anthony Sabatini, set up a campaign website that does not include campaign disclosure information required by the state Division of Elections. Additionally, the website directs supporters to donate to a political committee, “Conservative Leadership Coalition,” a practice that runs afoul of state elections law. Sources tell Florida Politics that Jacksonville attorney and former Duval County Judge Jerilynn O’Hara plans to file a complaint against Nunez with the state Commission on Ethics and Division of Elections.
“Letters to operatives targeted in ‘ghost’ candidate probe to be released” via Annie Martin of the Orlando Sentinel — Letters from Miami prosecutors informing several key figures in Florida’s “ghost” candidate scandal that they are facing the possibility of criminal charges are to be publicly released, following a court hearing Thursday. Attorneys representing former state senator Frank Artiles objected to the public release of certain evidence they deemed “private” during the hearing but did not argue to shield from disclosure the letters, which alerted three individuals and a nonprofit organization that they are also under investigation. Attorneys representing Artiles had requested to keep nonpublic other records prosecutors in the case have collected, including Artiles’ credit report and files collected from his personal laptops and cellphone.
— CORONA NATION —
“Rapid nasal COVID-19 tests feared to be returning false negatives” via Caitlin Owens of Axios — There appears to be yet another layer to America’s coronavirus testing chaos: People may not test positive on rapid nasal tests until after they’re infectious, which would make the tests an unreliable measure of whether it’s safe to gather. Rapid tests have been hailed as a way to weather the Omicron surge without mass disruption to everyday life. But they’ve been in short supply for weeks, and now new research suggests there may be significant limitations to their usefulness with this variant. among a case study of 30 people who took nasal rapid antigen tests and saliva PCR tests at the same time, four of them transmitted the virus following a false negative rapid antigen test.
“More Americans are eligible for boosters. But getting shots in arms hasn’t been easy.” via Azi Paybarah of The New York Times — The Biden administration has primarily responded to the near-vertical rise in coronavirus cases by pushing for more people to get not only their initial doses of vaccine but booster shots as well. Even as the United States has moved rapidly to expand who is eligible for boosters, progress in persuading COVID-19-fatigued Americans to get them has stalled. According to federal data, about 62% of Americans, about 206 million people, are fully vaccinated. But according to a CDC database, only about 35% of Americans had received a booster since mid-August, when additional shots were first authorized, even as eligibility has greatly expanded.
“For CDC’s Rochelle Walensky, a steep learning curve on messaging” via Sharon LaFraniere, Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Noah Weiland of The New York Times — Two days before Christmas, with the Omicron variant driving a near-vertical rise in new coronavirus cases, the director of the CDC alerted the White House that she planned to recommend that people infected with the virus isolate for five days instead of 10. The director, Dr. Walensky, had faced previous criticism for issuing recommendations that confused the public and, in some cases, caught the White House off guard. Determined to avoid that this time, she briefed other top Biden health officials on her proposal so they would all be on the same page, according to two people familiar with her actions.
— CORONA ECONOMICS —
“Mounting omicron infections force businesses to scramble, threatening economic recovery” via David J. Lynch of The Washington Post — The omicron coronavirus variant is slowing the economic recovery, making worker shortages for already-shorthanded employers more severe and leading consumers to pull back from spending on restaurants, hotels and airlines that have been battered by two years of pandemic upheaval. Since it was first detected in southern Africa late last year, the highly contagious coronavirus variant has sparked restrictions on business activity in several countries. David Nayfeld, co-owner of Che Fico, an Italian taverna in San Francisco, said he spent more than $5,000 on rapid coronavirus tests in December before opting to temporarily close for the last two weeks of the year.
— MORE CORONA —
“India medical agency flags worries over Merck COVID-19 drug” via Archana Chaudhary of Bloomberg — The head of India’s main medical research agency said there were “major safety concerns” over Merck & Co.’s COVID-19 drug that may impede its addition to the country’s viral treatment list. Even though India’s drug regulator last week approved Merck’s molnupiravir for emergency use, Balram Bhargava, the director-general of the state-funded Indian Council of Medical Research, said the government has yet to decide on whether to recommend molnupiravir, even as coronavirus infection rates in the country soar to more than 90,000 a day, the highest level since mid-June. India’s hesitation comes after the U.S. FDA approved molnupiravir last month for emergency use, shortly after Pfizer Inc.’s rival COVID-19 medicine was cleared by the same regulator.
“Chicago schools to shut for 3rd day amid debate with union” via Sophia Tareen of The Associated Press — Leaders of the nation’s third-largest school district canceled classes for a third consecutive day amid increasingly tense negotiations with the Chicago Teachers Union over remote learning and other COVID-19 safety protocols. The union told teachers to stay home starting Wednesday during the latest COVID-19 surge while both sides negotiated. During negotiations, the move prompted district officials to cancel classes each day for students in the roughly 350,000-student district. In a Thursday message to parents, district officials said classes would be canceled Friday, but “in-person learning and activities may be available at a small number of schools” based on how many staff show up; a small percentage of teachers have continued to come to schools during what the district has labeled an “illegal work stoppage.”
“Study offers reassurance on COVID-19 shots, women’s periods” via Lauran Neergaard of The Associated Press — Research published Wednesday tracked nearly 4,000 U.S. women through six menstrual cycles and, on average, the next period after a shot started about a day later than usual. But there was no change in the number of days of menstrual bleeding after the COVID-19 vaccination. “This is incredibly reassuring,” said Dr. Alison Edelman of Oregon Health & Science University, who led the research and said it’s important to tell women what to expect. Some women have reported irregular periods or other menstrual changes after their shots. The National Institutes of Health is funding studies to examine if there’s any link. Edelman said one theory is that when the immune system revs up at certain times in the cycle, “our body clock or what controls the menstrual cycle can have a hiccup.”
— PRESIDENTIAL —
“Some health advisers to Biden’s transition team call for a new COVID-19 strategy in the U.S.“ via Sheryl Gay Stolberg of The New York Times — On the day Biden was inaugurated, the advisory board of health experts who counseled him during the presidential transition officially ceased to exist. But its members have quietly continued to meet regularly over Zoom, their conversations often turning to frustration with Biden’s coronavirus response. Now, six of these former advisers have gone public with an extraordinary, albeit polite, critique and a plea to be heard. In three opinion articles, they are calling for Biden to adopt an entirely new domestic pandemic strategy, one that is geared to the “new normal” of living with the virus indefinitely, not to wipe it out.
— D.C. MATTERS —
“GOP election deniers get corporate PACs’ cash again in 2022 bet” via Bill Allison of Bloomberg — Corporations have resumed donations to Republican lawmakers who objected to certifying the 2020 presidential election results the day a mob stormed the U.S. Capitol, betting that the GOP will retake the House in November’s midterm elections. Political action committees for business interests, including Koch Industries Inc., Valero Energy Corp., United Parcel Service Inc., and Lockheed Martin Corp., together have given $16.1 million to the 147 Republican members of Congress who voted against certifying Biden’s 2020 Presidential Election victory over Trump, a Bloomberg analysis of Federal Election Commission disclosures show.
“Matt Gaetz stokes ‘blood libel’ FBI conspiracy, wants Marjorie Taylor Greene leading Jan. 6 committee” via Jacob Ogles of Florida Politics — Rep. Gaetz said that when Republicans take control of the House, they should not disband the Jan. 6 committee. Instead, they should put controversial Rep. Greene in charge and turn the sights on blaming Democrats and the FBI. The Panhandle Republican, who on Jan. 6 infamously blamed the Capitol riot on Antifa protesters, now wants Congress to investigate if FBI informants stoked violence that disrupted the certification of Biden’s electoral victory over Trump. He appeared with Greene on Steve Bannon’s podcast to discuss Jan. 6. The most consequential moment may have come when he asserted Greene should chair the Jan. 6 Committee next year.
“Darren Soto reflects on Jan. 6 with horror of what nearly happened, hope for what is happening now” via Scott Powers of Florida Politics — A year ago, Jan. 6, 2021, there was a moment inside the U.S. Capitol when Rep. Soto and others huddled in the House of Representatives gallery as gunfire sounds coming from the corridor had him genuinely fearing he and other lawmakers might be assassinated. And there were moments Soto recalls from that day that he believes saved the American democracy: when the state election certification boxes were sealed and secured from theft and when congressional leadership decided Congress would return that day to finish the job of certifying the 2020 presidential election, rather than abandon the Capitol, as many in security were advising them to do. If either had not happened, he believes a constitutional crisis could have suspended America’s democracy.
“Dick Cheney, once a villain to Democrats, hailed in surprise Capitol visit to mark Jan. 6” via David Jackson and Savannah Behrmann of USA Today — A surprise guest popped up at a Jan. 6 memorial event Thursday, and he turned out to be a prominent Republican: Cheney. “I am deeply disappointed at the failure of many members of my party to recognize the grave nature of the Jan. 6 attacks and the ongoing threat to our nation,” the former vice president said in a statement after attending a minute of silence ceremony on the House floor. Dick Cheney, a former Congressman, was accompanied by his daughter, Rep. Liz Cheney, the only Republicans to attend the ceremony to mark the violent insurrection of a year ago.
— CRISIS —
“Trump and Jan. 6 rioters face broad legal threat in New Year” via Erik Larson of Bloomberg — One year after thousands of Trump supporters overran the U.S. Capitol while Congress was working to certify Biden’s election as President, the government is still pursuing charges over the attack. So far, more than 725 people have been charged with a variety of crimes stemming from the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, from breaking the Capitol’s windows to assaulting police officers. Most have pleaded not guilty, setting up the potential for a swell of trials this year. There’s also the question of whether the former President or his closest allies will be criminally charged with inciting the riot. Meanwhile, the nation’s top Republican is fighting half a dozen civil suits for his role in the events, and Trump insiders are challenging subpoenas from the House committee probing the roots of the assault.
“Conservative networks minimize insurrection on anniversary” via David Bauer of The Associated Press — At one point Thursday afternoon, Rep. Adam Kinzinger was on CNN recounting what he was doing a year earlier when the U.S. Capitol was attacked. At the same time, MSNBC was reporting on the Justice Department probe into what led up to the riot. Yet Fox News Channel aired a video of a painting dog to illustrate a discussion about people maxing out on screen time. The anniversary was the top story on the CNN and MSNBC morning news shows. Yet between 6:20 and 9 a.m. on the agenda-setting “Fox & Friends” show mentioned the anniversary twice — once in a news headline package and another as an aside by host Brian Kilmeade to suggest Biden wanted to direct attention to topics that were less damaging to him.
“The battle to prevent another Jan. 6 features a new weapon: The algorithm” via Steven Zeitchik of The Washington Post — For many Americans who witnessed the attack on the Capitol last Jan. 6, the idea of mobs of people storming a bedrock of democracy was unthinkable. For the data scientists who watched it unfold, the reaction was a little different: We’ve been thinking about this for a long time. The sentiment comes from a small group working in a cutting-edge field known as unrest prediction. The group takes a promising, if fraught, approach that applies the complex methods of machine learning to the mysterious roots of political violence. Centered since its inception several years ago in the developing world, its systems since last Jan. 6 are slowly being retooled with a new goal: predicting the next Jan. 6. Last month, three retired generals warned in an op-ed that they saw conditions becoming increasingly susceptible to a military coup after the 2024 election.
— EPILOGUE TRUMP —
“Pro- and anti-Trump crowds gather in West Palm Beach as ex-President, Governor weigh-in” via Antonio Fins, Gerard Albert III and Julius Whigham II of the Palm Beach Post — The main event got canceled, but Palm Beach County remained in the spotlight of the Jan. 6 insurrection anniversary. Supporters of Trump gathered along Southern Boulevard in West Palm Beach. And an “anti-Trumpism” candlelight vigil convened near downtown as well, not far from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate across a bridge in Palm Beach. The day kicked off with DeSantis in town for a COVID-19 briefing. Asked about the 2021 deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol to prevent the electoral vote election of Biden, DeSantis dismissed the anniversary as “politicized.”
“Ex-Trumpers set to plot how to try and take down Trump” via Meridith McGraw and Daniel Lippman of POLITICO — A group of former Trump administration officials are banding together to block their former boss from entering office again. The meeting of the group, announced by former White House press secretary and chief of staff to the first lady Stephanie Grisham, is scheduled for next week where they will discuss how to “try and stop” former President Trump and the “kind of violence and rhetoric that has been talked about and continues to divide our country.” In an interview with CNN on the morning of Jan. 6, Grisham said about 15 former Trump administration officials, some she said, who ranked higher than her, have held informal discussions and plan to meet in person. It’s unclear if the gathering of Trump alums next week will form a formal political entity.
“Karl Rove blasts Republicans who back Trump’s false 2020 claims” via Mark Niquette of Bloomberg — Rove unleashed a sweeping attack on members of his party who have echoed Trump’s falsehoods about the 2020 election and the subsequent Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, urging them to put patriotism ahead of political interests. In a Wall Street Journal opinion piece on Thursday marking the anniversary of the assault, Rove asked Republicans how they would respond if, after Trump won the 2016 election, Democrats had claimed fraud, stormed the Capitol, attacked police officers, and threatened violence against GOP leaders to stop legally certified Electoral College votes for Trump. Rove said Republicans would not have accepted such action as merely a “protest,” called the rioters “patriots,” or justified the attempt to change the outcome of a presidential election as Trump.
“Jared Moskowitz’s swearing-in to Broward Commission is moved up for ailing dad” via Brittany Wallman of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel — The County Commission swearing-in of Moskowitz has been moved up to next week, to accommodate his ailing father, a Broward Democratic power broker who has cancer. Moskowitz, 41, appointed to the southwest Broward seat by DeSantis, will be sworn in on Jan. 12 at 2:30 p.m. in Parkland City Hall so that his father can attend. Mike Moskowitz, 68, a lobbyist, lawyer and powerful presence in Broward politics for decades, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and his health is declining. He is eager to see his son seated on the County Commission, Jared Moskowitz said, and if possible, wanted to swear him in personally.
“New St. Petersburg Mayor, City Council members sworn in on historic day” via Colleen Wright and Margo Snipe of the Tampa Bay Times — Ken Welch, a St. Petersburg native who grew up in one of its redlined neighborhoods and attended one of its segregated elementary schools, was sworn in Thursday as its first Black Mayor. While COVID-19 precautions and the Mayor’s own positive test derailed some of the pageantry, community leaders cheered during the virtual ceremony shown at the city’s Dr. Carter G. Woodson African American Museum and students in at least 22 Pinellas County schools tuned in to witness what was once unimaginable. They saw Welch, who was experiencing mild cold-like symptoms from the coronavirus, sworn in at his Lakewood Estates home by 6th Judicial Circuit Judge Michael J. Andrews. They watched him put his left hand on a Bible carried by his 19-year-old daughter, Kenya. They listened as he recited the oath of office.
“Pinellas County Superintendent Mike Grego to retire” via Kelly Hayes of Florida Politics — Grego will retire on July 1, he announced Thursday morning. Grego’s retirement will conclude his 42-year career in public education, with the last decade spent serving Pinellas County. In a video posted by Pinellas County Schools, Grego read a statement detailing his decision to step down and highlighting his accomplishments during his tenure. “Over the last decade, we have tackled the challenges of the district head-on, bringing needed stability and a renewed focus on student achievement,” Grego said in a statement. Grego highlighted the district’s improved graduation rate, which rose to 92% in 2021 from just under 70% when he was first hired in 2012.
“‘We need help in Miami’: Former police chief begged for federal investigation” via Nicholas Nehamas, Jay Weaver, Joey Flechas of the Miami Herald — When then-Miami police chief Art Acevedo accused city commissioners of corruption amid a battle to save his job last year, he went all the way to Washington, D.C., for help, asking for a federal “intervention” in his city. Two weeks before he was fired, Acevedo emailed Department of Justice officials an eight-page memo accusing commissioners Joe Carollo, Alex Díaz de la Portilla and Manolo Reyes of improperly interfering in police internal investigations and other misdeeds. “I and our department are in dire need of assistance,” Acevedo wrote to DOJ on Sept. 28. The FBI is unlikely to pursue Acevedo’s allegations. That’s because, by memorializing his concerns in a memo that quickly leaked to the media, Acevedo blew the chance of a federal undercover operation.
“Miami-Dade School Board is in a rush because ‘Superintendent has already been identified,’ activist says” via Hatzel Vela of WPLG Local 10 News — T. Willard Fair said he is worried about the way the Miami-Dade School Board is going about hiring Superintendent Alberto Carvalho’s replacement. Fair is the President and chief executive officer of the Urban League of Greater Miami, Inc. He co-founded the Liberty City Charter School and the FBI honored him for his “We Rise Education Village” initiative. “It’s done. The next Superintendent has already been identified. He will be a controlled person,” Fair said after attending the school board’s public meeting on Wednesday. “I saw politicians doing what they had to do to conceive and deceive the public.” School board members voted to start the hiring process by accepting resumes from applicants during the next seven days.
“Who would be exempt from 2 a.m. Miami Beach drinking cutoff? First proposals released” via Martin Vassolo of the Miami Herald — Two months after Miami Beach voters approved a nonbinding referendum calling for a rollback of alcohol sales in the city, the city administration released a memo Thursday outlining potential options to impose a 2 a.m. booze ban with exceptions for certain businesses. Although a vote is not expected, Miami Beach commissioners will consider the five “draft options” and discuss their preferred approaches at a special meeting. The sale and consumption of alcohol are generally allowed until 5 a.m. in Miami Beach. Some areas, like the South of Fifth and Sunset Harbour neighborhoods, already have a 2 a.m. cutoff, but some businesses are currently exempt because they were previously licensed for 5 a.m. sales.
“New FAU research pins Indian River Lagoon pollution problems on leaky septic tanks” via Max Chesnes of Treasure Coast Newspapers — When it comes to pollution in the Indian River Lagoon, everyone has a boogeyman. In a year when a record manatee die-off put lagoon pollution under a microscope, some blame Lake Okeechobee’s freshwater discharges for eviscerating sea grass. Others point to deluges of stormwater runoff choking the estuary with nutrient-dense fertilizers from nearby farms. For Brian Lapointe, a Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute scientist, one polluter should carry most of the blame: Human waste leaking from septic tanks. “It’s the single-biggest boogeyman that we can do something about to really save the lagoon,” Lapointe told TCPalm in a recent interview.
“Graduation rate up in Miami-Dade schools; Broward schools report slight decline in 2020-21” via Sommer Brugal of the Miami Herald — High school graduation rates in public schools in Miami-Dade County increased during the 2020-21 school year, while rates in Broward County declined slightly for the first time in at least three years, the Florida Department of Education said Tuesday. In the 2020-21 year, Miami-Dade achieved a graduation rate of 90.1%, an increase of 0.5 points from the previous year, records show. In Broward County, 89.1% of high school seniors in public schools graduated last school year, a decline of 0.3 points from the previous year’s rate of 89.4%, data show. Both districts’ graduation rates include charter school data. Nevertheless, Broward schools Interim Superintendent Vickie Cartwright applauded the hard work of students, teachers and administrators.
“Inter Miami stadium complex negotiations are done, Mayor says. Crucial vote looms” via Joey Flechas and Michelle Kaufman of the Miami Herald — Negotiations over the proposal to build Miami Freedom Park are complete, according to Miami’s Mayor, paving the way for a crucial City Commission vote to either endorse or derail plans to redevelop Melreese golf course into a massive $1 billion shopping center, hotel, park and soccer stadium complex for the soccer club partly owned by retired footballer David Beckham. “We have an agreement, in principle,” Mayor Francis Suarez told the Herald in an interview Thursday. “The agreement is obviously subject to approval from the City Commission.”
“Brevard County parents form new group to counter Moms for Liberty as school divide deepens” via Bailey Gallion of Florida Today — Families for Safe Schools began in April on Facebook as a group called “Mandate Masks in Brevard County schools.” It gained momentum as a counterpart to Moms for Liberty, a vocal conservative parent group with a prominent presence at School Board meetings. School Board meetings, once sparsely attended events, have become a new front in America’s culture wars over the last year as the nation struggles with the COVID-19 pandemic and growing demands for social justice, inclusiveness and greater racial accountability. Moms for Liberty started out as a local organization pushing back against what they viewed as progressive school policies undermining parental rights. It now has chapters across the county. The parents who formed Families for Safe Schools have essentially taken a page from the conservatives’ playbook to fight back for their beliefs.
“Palm Beach County public schools lose their second police chief in eight months” via Andrew Marra of the Palm Beach Post — The police chief of Palm Beach County’s public schools is resigning after just eight months on the job. Police Chief Daniel Alexander submitted his resignation Thursday to take an administrative job at a government agency in Virginia, school district officials said. His last day will be Jan. 21. Alexander — who served as Boca Raton’s police chief before joining the school district as deputy chief in 2019 — is the district’s second police chief to step down in the past year. The previous chief, Frank Kitzerow, resigned in April amid growing tension between the police union and the district’s leaders.
“United Airlines is canceling flights into and out of Destin-Fort Walton Beach Airport” via Tom McLaughlin of the Northwest Florida Daily News — United Airlines has announced that as of March 4, it will discontinue flights into and out of Destin-Fort Walton Beach Airport. The carrier is one of five presently operating out of one of the country’s fastest-growing commercial airports. But Okaloosa County Airports Director Tracy Stage said the airline’s decision to cancel its flight schedule should not have a significant impact. “It actually will open up some much-needed gate space,” Stage said. Stage said he did not expect United’s departure to be permanent. Airline officials had informed Destin-Fort Walton Beach Airport that the decision had been made to take a yearlong hiatus while it addressed “a significant shortage of pilots.”
“Epiphany celebration in Tarpon Springs transcends troubled times” via Anastasia Dawson and Josh Fiallo of the Tampa Bay Times — They say all who dive into the chilly waters of Spring Bayou on Jan. 6 feel a little lighter when they emerge, cross in hand or not. And this year, on the anniversary of the Capitol insurrection and with COVID-19 lingering, parents expressed a special appreciation for any extra blessings their families might take home from the 116th Epiphany celebration in Tarpon Springs. Last year, the pandemic put a damper on the town’s signature celebration. For the first time since World War II, there was no “dove bearer” girl present to release a bird before the group of boys dove into the water.
— TOP OPINION —
“Biden is right: Trump’s wounded ego was the main reason for Jan. 6” via Max Boot of The Washington Post — In what may be the most powerful speech of his presidency so far, President Biden delivered a searing (and overdue) indictment on Thursday of his predecessor, never mentioned by name, for inciting a mob attack on the Capitol exactly a year ago. Biden identified the central truth of the insurrection: “The former President of the United States of America has created and spread a web of lies about the 2020 election … because his bruised ego matters more to him than our democracy or our Constitution. He can’t accept he lost.” Trump was willing to stage an assault on more than two centuries of democracy in America simply because his all-encompassing ego will not allow him to admit that more than 81.2 million voters repudiated him.
— OPINIONS —
“Trump can never lose” via The Wall Street Journal editorial board — Trump did the country and himself a favor by canceling the news conference he had planned for Jan. 6. But the press statement he released instead on Thursday underscores that the former President will never admit that he lost the 2020 election, no matter the cost to the country or his supporters. The former President still accuses Democrats of perpetrating “the real insurrection, on Nov. 3. ”Trump will not change, and Republicans who think a campaign to vindicate 2020 is the key to victory in 2022 will lose again.
“Are we really facing a Second Civil War?” via Michelle Goldberg of The New York Times — Barbara F. Walter, a political scientist, has interviewed many people who’ve lived through civil wars, and she told me they all say they didn’t see it coming. “They’re all surprised,” she said. “Even when, to somebody who studies it, it’s obvious years beforehand.” Even now, despite my constant horror at this country’s punch-drunk disintegration, I find the idea of a total meltdown hard to wrap my mind around. But to some of those, like Walter, who study Civil War, an American crackup has come to seem, if not obvious, then far from unlikely, especially since Jan. 6. It’s absurd to treat Civil War as a foregone conclusion, but that it now seems distinctly possible is still pretty bad. The fact that speculation about Civil War has moved from the crankish fringes into the mainstream is itself a sign of civic crisis, an indication of how broken our country is.
“Here’s when we expect omicron to peak” via Jeffrey Shaman of The New York Times — The Omicron variant is spreading widely and infecting large numbers of people, including the vaccinated and those previously infected with the virus. While spikes in cases have been the norm for the past two years, there are clear indications this wave will differ substantially from previous ones. The record number of cases in the United States and globally is largely because omicron is more contagious than other variants and has a greater ability to evade immunity to infection. At the same time, early evidence indicates that it’s less common for people infected with omicron to experience severe disease and end up in the hospital. This has important implications when estimating just how disruptive omicron will be in terms of deaths, hospitalizations, and work and school interruptions.
“With omicron, let’s not fight the last war” via Fareed Zakaria of The Washington Post — In the words of one headline, “New York’s Omicron Surge Points to a Wave of Mild Cases.” If the pattern holds up, it is crucial that we approach this phase of the pandemic differently rather than fighting the same way we did against the last variant. The United Kingdom Health Security Agency released an important analysis on Dec. 31; the findings are tentative. Even so, the analysis estimated that one’s risk of being hospitalized with omicron is half as high as with the delta variant, and the risk of needing emergency care is only one-third as high. More significant is the distinction between the vaccinated and the unvaccinated. The U.K. analysis, which looked at the AstraZeneca, Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, estimated that people with two doses plus a booster shot are 88% less likely to be hospitalized than those without vaccinations.
— WEEKEND TV —
Battleground Florida with Evan Donovan on News Channel 8 WFLA (NBC): Florida Politics Publisher Peter Schorsch, political consultant Anthony Pedicini; attorney and activist Sean Shaw.
Facing South Florida with Jim DeFede on CBS 4 in Miami: The Sunday show provides viewers with an in-depth look at politics in South Florida, along with other issues affecting the region.
Florida This Week on Tampa Bay’s WEDU with moderator Rob Lorei: John Hope Franklin Professor of Southern History Emeritus, USF-St. Petersburg, Ray Arsenault; Florida Citrus Mutual Director of Government Relations Matt Joyner; Northside Coalition of Jacksonville Community Activist and veteran journalist Ben Frazier.
In Focus with Allison Walker on Bay News 9/CF 13: A preview of the upcoming Legislative Session with Reps. Tom Leek and Fentrice Driskell.
Political Connections Bay News 9 in Tampa/St. Pete: A preview of the 2022 Legislative Session, including the top items on the Governor’s agenda, and a one-on-one interview with CEO of VISIT FLORIDA Dana Young on how this Session could determine the organization’s fate.
Political Connections on CF 13 in Orlando: Congressman Darren Soto will look back at the Jan. 6 insurrection and discuss his firsthand account of what was happening in the House as the attacks took place.
The Usual Suspects on WCTV-Tallahassee/Thomasville (CBS) and WJHG-Panama City (NBC): Host Gary Yordon talks with attorney Sean Pittman and Leon County School Board member Darryl Jones.
This Week in Jacksonville with Kent Justice on Channel 4 WJXT: Gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist; Republican CD 20 candidate Jason Mariner.
— ALOE —
“Lin-Manuel Miranda and ‘Hamilton’ cast members perform song during Jan. 6 event” via Marina Pirofsky of USA Today — Miranda and cast members from the musical “Hamilton” gave a virtual performance on Thursday during a Jan. 6 event on Capitol Hill. Miranda, the creator of the Tony Award-winning musical about the life of founding father Alexander Hamilton, introduced the performance. The cast sang “Dear Theodosia,” a song the characters Hamilton and Aaron Burr sing to their children in the musical. “We are all stewards of the American experiment, working to pass down to our children and our grandchildren a more perfect union that treats all its citizens with fairness and equity,” Miranda said.
“First launch of 2022 lifts off from Florida’s Space Coast” via WESH — With the successful launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 Thursday afternoon, the 2022 launch season has officially kicked off. And it’s going to be a busy one. Today’s SpaceX Falcon 9 launch kicked off the year at the Kennedy Space Center. It launched another batch of their Starlink satellites. “Everything on the Cape is really starting to pop. There are several launches back to the moon, which is exciting because we have not put anything on the moon in a very long time. And the moon is a big target because the Russians are going back, the Japanese, the South Koreans, the Indians. So, the moon is going to be busy this year,” Dale Ketcham of Space Florida said.
“The clever way Disney stops crowds from forming in their theme parks” via Josie Klein of The Sun — Visitors to Disney theme parks can wear wristbands, called magic bands, which are used to gain access to the parks, as hotel room keys and to make payments at shops and restaurants. According to a Disney superfan called The Mouselets on TikTok, each magic band contains a chip, so when the band is placed on a touchpoint, such as a hotel room door, it will be read and will open. Disney has placed sensors all over the park that pick up the number of magic bands in the vicinity, including in ride queues, so staff can see exactly how busy areas are getting. That means staff can monitor where crowds are building and disperse them.
“Will Disney ever win best picture? ‘West Side Story’ is another loophole chance” via Clayton Davis of Variety — Walt Disney Studios has conquered the box office, but when will it have its big Oscar moment? The 98-year-old studio has never won the Oscar for best picture with a film bearing the iconic castle’s opening logo. Over the years, Disney has had a stronghold on categories such as animated feature. This shouldn’t be too surprising for a family-friendly studio, considering the Academy’s genre bias and its favoring of dramas and biopics. However, with an evolving voting membership, could the Oscars give the top prize to a Disney movie? The only viable live-action film with the Disney logo in 2021 is Craig Gillespie’s “Cruella,” hoping at best for costume or makeup recognition.
“Carey Family Foundation shopping spree puts smiles on children’s faces” via Emmett Hall of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel — Former Miami Hurricane and Miami Dolphins offensive lineman Vernon Carey and his family brought some holiday cheer to South Florida families with a shopping spree at Dick’s Sporting Goods in Pembroke Pines. Creating happy memories for family members from the Carver Ranches Boys & Girls Club continued afterward with lunch provided by Hooters of Pembroke Pines. The Carey Family Foundation also provided gifts for several families from the Boys & Girls Clubs’ Lauderhill and Deerfield Beach locations. In addition, gift donations were also provided to the children at the Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital. Since 2015, The Carey Family Foundation has provided a back-to-school shopping spree at Dick’s Sporting Goods as well as its holiday shopping spree.
— HAPPY BIRTHDAY —
Celebrating today are Mark Lane of The Daytona Beach News-Journal, Diane Roberts, Chris Spencer, and Jonny Torres.
___
Sunburn is authored and assembled by Peter Schorsch, Phil Ammann, Renzo Downey and Drew Wilson.
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13.) AXIOS
Axios AM
Happy Friday! Smart Brevity™ count: 1,497 words … 5 minutes. Edited by Zachary Basu.
⚡ Breaking: Kazakhstan’s president has ordered security forces to “shoot to kill without warning” in an effort to quash a nationwide uprising. Go deeper.
Illustration: Shoshana Gordon/Axios
Most American businesses are holding back on requiring vaccines or testing for employees. Now the Supreme Court will decide whether the Biden administration can force their hands, Axios’ Emily Peck writes.
- Why it matters: Omicron outbreaks are forcing business closures, flight cancellations and staffing shortages — a chaotic business environment that’s not great for the economy or employers.
The Supreme Court will hear arguments this morning over two of the Biden administration’s flagship COVID policies:
- An emergency vaccinate-or-test rule covering an estimated 80 million employees at large companies, issued by OSHA.
- A vaccine mandate for health care workers at facilities that receive Medicare or Medicaid funds.
Where it stands: Only about 18% of businesses require vaccinations, according to a November survey from Willis Towers Watson.
- The recent rise in cases, and looming mandates, have pushed some to act: Starbucks this week announced all employees must either be vaccinated or submit to regular testing.
- The Mayo Clinic fired 700 of its employees (about 1% of staff) who refused to be vaccinated.
- Plenty of others are waiting on the Court, said Jeff Levin-Sherz, a population health leader at Willis Towers Watson: 32% of companies said they’d only require vaccination if it was a federal rule.
Zoom out: This case is a key front in the Republican war against Biden’s vaccine requirements. 183 GOP members of Congress, including 47 senators, filed an amicus brief at the Court arguing against the vaccine mandates.
One side: Mandate opponents say the requirements are executive overreach.
- They claim COVID is not a workplace hazard, per se, but something that’s all around us.
- Another argument is that mandates would push workers to quit, exacerbating labor shortages.
The other side: The administration, public health experts and former OSHA staff say the agency is explicitly authorized to take emergency measures to protect workplace safety.
- Requiring masks, testing or vaccination is less intrusive than some other OSHA rules, they say.
What’s next: The Court is expected to move relatively fast — possibly issuing a ruling by month’s end.
Illustration: Annelise Capossela/Axios
U.S. mortgage rates rose this week to the highest level since May 2020, Freddie Mac said:
- A 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 3.22%, with an average 0.7 point. That’s up from 3.11% last week.
- A year ago, it was 2.65%. That was the low in data going back 50 years.
Why it matters: “Ultralow interest rates have been a major force in the housing boom of the last two years,” The Wall Street Journal notes.
Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), vice chair of the House committee investigating Jan. 6, told CNN’s Jake Tapper last night that the committee is looking at whether former President Trump committed a crime during the riot:
- “[W]e know from firsthand testimony that he watched television while the attack was underway. … We know that he did not walk the very few steps to the White House briefing room, get on camera immediately, and tell the people to stop and go home.”
“The president of the United States is responsible for ensuring that the laws are faithfully executed. He’s responsible for the security of other branches,” Cheney continued.
- “So, for a president to — through either his action or his inaction, for example, attempt to impede or obstruct the counting of electoral votes, which is an official proceeding of Congress … — the committee is … looking at whether what he did constitutes that kind of a crime.”
Earlier in the day, Rep. Liz Cheney joined her father, former V.P. Dick Cheney, as the only Republicans for a moment of silence at the Capitol.
President Biden’s speech yesterday in the Capitol’s Statuary Hall, hailed as perhaps the best of his presidency, included these keeper lines:
- “You can’t love your country only when you win. You can’t obey the law only when it’s convenient. You can’t be patriotic when you embrace and enable lies.”
- “I will stand in this breach. I will defend this nation. And I will allow no one to place a dagger at the throat of our democracy.” Read the speech.
🗞️ How it’s playing …
Above: Chloe Chen, 5, of Fairfax, Va., meets a security dog named Dante while offering snacks to a Capitol Police officer yesterday.
Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios
This week’s Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas is showing off a few building blocks of the still-distant metaverse, Axios’ Ina Fried writes in her weekly “Signal Boost” column.
- Why it matters: The full vision of a shared, 3D digital dimension à la “Ready Player One” is probably still a decade away. But it won’t arrive in one piece: Instead, it will show up in bits and chunks before coalescing into something functional and useful.
A few examples of CES’ steps toward a metaverse:
- Panasonic subsidiary Shiftall introduced a $270 body-tracking suit, due this spring, that helps bring legs into the metaverse. Most people traveling around today’s VR experiences are only a head and torso.
- Pebble Feel (above) is a body-worn accessory that recreates heat and cold to make virtual reality a little more like the real world. As a bonus, it can also act as both a personal AC and heater for those times when people have to contend with non-virtual weather.
- Samsung announced TVs that can display NFTs. With many metaverse boosters touting a crypto/Web3 dimension to the world-building project, anything that makes virtual objects more visible in multiple places could speed their adoption.
- 🐦 Go deeper: This Twitter thread collected photos chronicling CES abuses of the metaverse label.
Illustration: Annelise Capossela/Axios
The New York Times said yesterday it’s using more than half of the whopping $1 billion in cash on its balance sheet to buy The Athletic — a sports media startup that currently loses a lot of money, Axios Media Trends author Sara Fischer writes.
- Why it matters: “It’s about accelerating our long-term strategy,” Times CEO Meredith Kopit Levien told Axios.
The Athletic has 1.2 million subscribers, making it “the fifth-largest English-language digital journalism provider by subscribers,” Levien told investors. With nearly 8 million digital subscribers, The Times is the largest on that list.
- The Athletic is one of the largest sports journalism companies in the world, with 450 journalists. By comparison, there are roughly 45 sports journalists at The Times. Executives say there’s little audience overlap between the two firms.
Reality check: The Athletic lost $55 million in 2021 — on revenue of $65 million.
- Levien doesn’t anticipate The Athletic turning a profit for another three years.
- The Athletic’s Series D investors valued the company at roughly $500 million two years ago. It sold for $550 million Thursday.
Zoom out: The Times has had an extraordinary run over the past few years. It’s well on track to meet its 10 million paid digital subscriber goal years ahead of schedule.
- Kopien said the Times has now adjusted that goal to a “meaningfully larger” number.
Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios
Top mayors around the country are pressing congressional leadership to add funding to the Restaurant Revitalization Fund (RRF):
- “Restaurants … are hurting, and if they do not receive help soon the impact on our local economies will be catastrophic,” 20+ mayors wrote in a letter, organized by the Independent Restaurant Coalition.
- “Restaurants and bars are months beyond struggling, they are dying in plain sight.”
Between the lines: By appealing to congressional leaders, the industry is hoping to bring pressure on the White House.
- Erika Polmar, the group’s executive director, said: “The IRC has been making the case for relief with senior White House officials for months and hope they understand the gravity of the situation.”
Among the mayors who signed: Eric Adams of New York, Lori Lightfoot of Chicago, London Breed of San Francisco, Eric Garcetti of L.A., Jacob Frey of Minneapolis, Michelle Wu of Boston, Jim Kenney of Philadelphia, Michael Hancock of Denver and John Cooper of Nashville.
49-year-old “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve” — now with Ryan Seacrest — still owns New Year’s, nine years after Clark’s death, AP reports from Nielsen figures:
- The ABC show reached 19.6 million viewers between 11:30 p.m. and 12:30 a.m. During the 15 minutes around the Times Square ball drop, Seacrest’s audience jumped to 24.2 million.
- NBC, which tried a new show with Miley Cyrus and Pete Davidson, reached 6.3 million.
- CBS’ “Nashville’s Big Bash” had 5.2 million viewers.
- CNN’s shot-filled celebration with Andy Cohen (who drunkenly joked on air about “Ryan Seacrest’s group of losers”) and Anderson Cooper reached 3.3 million viewers between 11 p.m. and 12:30 a.m.
- Fox News Channel’s Nashville-based show drew 2.1 million.
🥊 Omicron had us all trapped at home: The ABC show had its biggest audience in four years.
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14.) THE WASHINGTON FREE BEACON
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17.) THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
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20.) CHICAGO TRIBUNE
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22.) THE HILL MORNING REPORT
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23.) THE HILL 12:30 REPORT
24.) ROLL CALL
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Morning Headlines
ANALYSIS — With the Fed winding down its unconventional monetary policy on a faster timetable than anyone thought, it’s up to Democratic leaders to work with Joe Manchin or risk seeing several signature campaign promises go up in flames ahead of crucial midterm elections. Read more…
On the anniversary of the day that a pro-Trump mob forced its way into the Capitol, President Joe Biden spoke in a mostly empty Statuary Hall. Republican lawmakers made themselves scarce. Law enforcement presence was high, but no throngs of people ringed the building like last year. The Capitol at times felt deserted. Read more…
Biden never used Donald Trump’s name in Jan. 6 speech — data show he rarely does
ANALYSIS — President Joe Biden forcefully pinned responsibility Thursday for the Capitol riot on his predecessor — but he never said Donald Trump’s name. In fact, the 46th chief executive rarely does, a stark break from the man he ousted from power. Read more…
Click here to subscribe to Fintech Beat for the latest market and regulatory developmentsin finance and financial technology.
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Catch up with all the latest election news from CQ Roll Call campaign reporters Stephanie Akin and Kate Ackley in the At the Races newsletter. This week’s “Shop Talk” features Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee. Read more…
Some Democrats see Jan. 6 riot as motivator against midterm apathy
A year after leaders from both parties came together to condemn the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol, the events of that day have become a partisan messaging point in the 2022 midterm elections. Read more…
CQ Roll Call is a part of FiscalNote, the leading technology innovator at the intersection of global business and government. Copyright 2022 CQ Roll Call. All rights reserved Privacy | Safely unsubscribe now.
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25.) POLITICO PLAYBOOK
POLITICO Playbook: Biden finds a new Manchin whisperer
Presented by
DRIVING THE DAY
The White House is looking to Sen. MARK WARNER (D-Va.) to help thaw out its frosty relationship with Sen. JOE MANCHIN (D-W.Va.) in hopes of resurrecting President JOE BIDEN’s Build Back Better plan.
Two senior Senate sources said that Warner, one of Manchin’s closest friends and his former housemate, will be involved in any future BBB talks. Manchin has said publicly that he’s not negotiating with the White House. Privately, he has been even more pessimistic.
“He’s not in the mindset of moving forward,” said a source close to Manchin.
The West Virginia Democrat has complained about a lack of “effective outreach” or “reset” by top White House aides, and blamed them for making the BBB negotiations too personal. Manchin has spoken to STEVE RICCHETTI, Biden’s Hill whisperer, once since Christmas. But he’s still angry with chief of staff RON KLAIN, who he believes told press secretary JEN PSAKI to “unleash the dogs” in a heated White House statement after the senator announced on “Fox News Sunday” that he was a “no” on the bill.
Spokespeople for both Warner and Biden demurred about the specifics of the Virginia senator’s exact role in the effort to win over Manchin.
“Sen. Warner and Sen. Manchin are good friends,” a Warner spokesperson told Playbook. “They talk regularly, sometimes about policy and sometimes just shooting the breeze. I wouldn’t call those conversations ‘negotiations.’”
“A wide range of members are working on Build Back Better,” said White House spokesperson ANDREW BATES, “but Sen. Warner is not negotiating on behalf of the White House.”
However they want to characterize the effort, they’re still far from having Manchin on board. “I don’t think they’ll be able to coax him back into BBB,” the source close to Manchin told Playbook. “He’ll listen to Mark Warner, but he won’t do what he wants.”
“Sen. Manchin clearly articulated his policy concerns with Build Back Better, which are rooted in rising inflation, the ongoing pandemic and the geopolitical uncertainty around the world,” said a Manchin spokesperson. “He has tremendous respect for the president and his staff and will continue to look for ways to work together.”
Still, Manchin seems unmoved. And meanwhile, the White House has discussed repackaging BBB by breaking off a piece or pieces of policy to revive the talks, a senior Senate source said, adding that negotiations are still ongoing.
ON A CLOSELY RELATED NOTE, our own Burgess Everett has a look this morning on the stepped-up lobbying effort to get Manchin to change Senate rules and advance voting-rights legislation. In recent days, Manchin’s phone line has lit up with calls from former Presidents BILL CLINTON, BARACK OBAMA, and TV legend OPRAH WINFREY.
But that push, the strongest voices “aren’t liberal activists or die-hard filibuster opponents. Instead, they’re a small group of his friends who once shared his reluctance”: Sens. JON TESTER (D-Mont.), TIM KAINE (D-Va.) and ANGUS KING (I-Maine).
In 2017, all three joined Manchin in signing a letter promising to “preserve existing rules” of the Senate. But now, “they all say the Jan. 6 insurrection and other events have changed their minds,” and are trying to get their friend/colleague to join them.
“Kaine likened the effort to his 27-hour drive to Washington earlier this week after a snowstorm devastated I-95: ‘Slow progress toward a goal, like my commute,’” Burgess writes. “For the trio of Senate optimists, Manchin’s openness alone, a year after he vowed to never change the filibuster, is something of a victory.”
Happy Friday, and thanks for reading Playbook. Drop us a line: Rachael Bade, Eugene Daniels, Ryan Lizza, Tara Palmeri.
FOUR IMPORTANT JAN. 6 STORIES — News outlets flooded their feeds with coverage commemorating the anniversary of the insurrection, debating its effects on American politics and even, occasionally, shedding new light on the horrors of the day. Here are four pieces that stuck out to us:
1) Behind the scenes of Biden’s big speech — In his address from the Capitol on Thursday, Biden “unburdened himself from the norms of presidential deference and unleashed a torrent of attacks against his immediate predecessor.” WaPo’s Tyler Pager and Annie Linskey have a look at the making of that speech, and the very conscious decision to talk all about DONALD TRUMP without ever once mentioning him by name. A couple of interesting nuggets: 1) Biden and his aides decided to go after Trump while calculating “that his speech at Thursday’s remembrance event would draw maximum media attention.” 2) Biden was apparently involved in “the framing and writing of the speech,” as were aides MIKE DONILON, VINAY REDDY and historian-turned-Biden-confidante JON MEACHAM.
2) & 3) A pair of must-see TV interviews — If you want a picture of where the Republican Party is post-Jan. 6, watch these two extraordinary exchanges from Thursday.
— CNN’s Jake Tapper spoke with KEVIN O’TOOLE, a former staffer for House Minority Leader KEVIN MCCARTHY, who voiced fierce criticism of his onetime boss.
“His leadership strategy is dictated by the most extreme wings of his party,” O’Toole said. “And so, when MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE or MATT GAETZ put their thumb on the scale, that’s what he responds to. And that drives the House Republican Conference into the arms of somebody like Donald Trump. … The leadership that enables that behavior is continuing today, as we’ve seen.”
It’s a fascinating interview. Staffers rarely speak out like this against sitting lawmakers, let alone leadership. That’s especially the case when, like O’Toole — who is now a staffer for Rep. LIZ CHENEY (R-Wyo.) — they still work on the Hill.
— Fox News’ TUCKER CARLSON grilled Sen. TED CRUZ (R-Texas) for recently referring to the deadly pro-Trump riot on Jan. 6, 2021, as a “violent terrorist attack on the Capitol.” (Carlson has repeatedly downplayed and diminished the seriousness of what happened on Jan. 6.)
Carlson: “You called this a ‘terror attack’ when by no definition was it a terror attack. That’s a lie. You told that lie on purpose, and I’m wondering why you did.”
Cruz: “Well, Tucker, thank you for having me on. … The way I phrased things yesterday, it was sloppy, and it was, frankly, dumb.”
Carlson: “I don’t buy that. Whoa, whoa, whoa. I don’t buy that. … You take words as seriously as any man who’s ever served in the Senate. … I do not believe that you used that accidentally. I just don’t.”
It went on like that for seven minutes, with Carlson saying Cruz’s further explanation “doesn’t make sense.” More from Myah Ward … ALSO, a fact-check, via Josh Gerstein: “About 45 Jan. 6 defendants are charged with a crime on the terrorism list: depredation of federal property.” … and via Reuters’ Brad Heath: “Federal prosecutors in DC have categorized more than 150 Jan. 6 cases as being ‘domestic terrorism’ in their internal case-tracking reports.”
4) SCOOP: Then VP-elect KAMALA HARRIS was in the DNC when a pipe bomb was discovered outside the building on Jan. 6. This story, which Betsy Woodruff Swan, Christopher Cadelago and Kyle Cheney broke Thursday afternoon, underscores just how close the nation came to a full-blown constitutional crisis one year ago.
— “DON’T FORGET: The bomb was placed the night before,” Kyle reminds us. “This means Harris entered the bulding with the bomb outside.”
JAN. 6: THE WORK THAT REMAINS — One year after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, the political aftershocks are still reverberating. Rachael talks with Rep. JAMIE RASKIN (D-Md.) about his efforts to hold Trump accountable, and with congressional reporter Olivia Beavers about what it was like to be trapped in the Capitol that day. Listen and subscribe to Playbook Deep Dive
BIDEN’S FRIDAY (Eastern times):
— 10:45 a.m.: The president will deliver remarks on the December jobs report.
— 11:15 a.m.: The Bidens will leave the White House for Colorado, arriving in Louisville (via Denver) around 5 p.m.
— 5:30 p.m.: The Bidens will tour a neighborhood in Louisville. Then they’ll meet with families affected by the Marshall Fire at 6:35 p.m., and Biden will speak briefly.
— 8:10 p.m.: The Bidens will leave the area en route to Las Vegas, arriving at 10:25 p.m.
Principal deputy press secretary KARINE JEAN-PIERRE will gaggle on Air Force One on the way to Colorado.
THE SENATE will meet at noon to take up AMITABHA BOSE’s nomination to head the Federal Railroad Administration.
THE HOUSE is out.
PHOTO OF THE DAY
PLAYBOOK READS
THE WHITE HOUSE
A TURNING POINT FOR BIDEN? — Biden’s speech Thursday fulfilled many Democrats’ long-standing hopes that he would step up his defense of democracy and fight against those who threaten it. Now, his allies “hope that Biden’s speech marks a turning point in the administration’s focus,” Laura Barrón-López reports.
Worth flagging: House Majority Whip JIM CLYBURN (D-S.C.) said that Dems’ problem isn’t their message; “the problem is the image, which I think that the president took a big step toward helping to change today. There are people who just generally feel that we are not being tough enough. If they continue that into not just Georgia, but Florida, go to Texas, go to North Carolina, go to these places where people think they have free rein [to restrict access to the ballot]. And I think that we’ll see an excited base.”
FILLING THE RANKS — The White House announced its nomination of Army Lt. Gen. MICHAEL ERIK KURILLA to lead the U.S. Central Command, a role that oversees “military operations that include the Middle East as the Biden administration’s attempt to shift toward China has been complicated by the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan and Iran’s regional and nuclear ambitions,” WSJ’s Gordon Lubold and Nancy Youssef report.
CONGRESS
EXPLAIN THIS ONE TO YOUR 2004 SELF — Former VP DICK CHENEY paid a visit to the House floor Thursday, and “patiently waited to greet more than a dozen members waiting to shake his hand. They were all Democrats,” WaPo’s Marianna Sotomayor and Paul Kane report. “The man who was once portrayed by the Democratic Party as the dark villain of the Bush administration, responsible for failed wars, ruinous energy policies and torturing America’s enemies in a betrayal of the nation’s values has found common ground with his onetime foes over Jan. 6.”
ALL POLITICS
CUOMO EYES A COMEBACK? — Several prosecutors have moved to not bring charges against former New York Gov. ANDREW CUOMO. And although he still faces federal and state inquiries, “people who have known him for years expect the moment to embolden him, even as many in his party have no interest in opening another Cuomo chapter,” NYT’s Katie Glueck reports. “Over the past few months, Mr. Cuomo has reached out to friends and associates to sound them out about the political landscape, and some who have spoken with him came away with the impression that he is interested in finding a way back to relevance in public life.” Remember: Cuomo has an $18 million war chest and a bullish publicist.
KRISTOF CROSSED OFF — Oregon’s secretary of state ruled Thursday that NICK KRISTOF, the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer who recently resigned his coveted perch as a NYT columnist to run for governor of Oregon, failed to meet the three-year residency requirement needed to qualify for the office. (As recently as November 2020, he voted in New York, notes The Oregonian’s Hillary Borrud.)
— Kristof sounded a decidedly Trumpy note in response: “A failing political establishment in Oregon has chosen to protect itself, rather than give voters a choice. We will challenge this decision in court, and we are confident we will prevail, because the law is on our side.”
THE PANDEMIC
PUT TO THE TEST — WaPo’s Jacob Bogage and Dan Diamond scooped that the White House is finalizing its plan to send 500 million rapid at-home tests to Americans. They’re working with the U.S. Postal Service and will create a website where people can request the tests. An announcement could come next week, and shipments by the middle of the month.
STATISTIC OF THE DAY — The majority of cases counted as Covid-19 hospitalizations in some parts of the country are actually patients admitted for other reasons whose Covid infections were “discovered incidentally,” WaPo’s Dan Diamond, Fenit Nirappil and Dan Keating report.
The pandemic, they write, is now a tale of two variants: In “Omicron epicenters such as New York City, … many patients aren’t aware they’re infected until testing positive while visiting the hospital for other procedures,” while in places like “Michigan and Minnesota, … health workers continue to treat patients fighting for survival against the more severe Delta variant.”
TIME FOR A CHANGE? — In three new opinion pieces in the Journal of the American Medical Association, six prominent former Biden health advisers urged the president “to adopt an entirely new domestic pandemic strategy geared to the ‘new normal’ of living with the virus indefinitely, not to wiping it out,” NYT’s Sheryl Gay Stolberg writes. “Like any White House, Mr. Biden’s prizes loyalty and prefers to keep its differences in house; in that regard, the articles are an unusual step. The authors say they wrote them partly because they have not made headway talking directly to White House officials.” Read the articles
AMERICA AND THE WORLD
THE NEW CRISIS ON RUSSIA’S DOORSTEP — Violent unrest in Kazakhstan this week has prompted the U.S. Embassy there to take new security precautions, as some experts worry that Russia will take advantage of the situation to make incursions into the country, Quint Forgey, Erin Banco and Nahal Toosi report.
— The latest: “Kazakh leader ordered use of lethal force on ‘terrorists,’” by AP’s Dasha Litvinova in Moscow
TV TONIGHT — PBS’ “Washington Week,” focusing on Jan. 6: Zolan Kanno-Youngs, Carol Leonnig, Ryan Reilly and Jake Sherman.
SUNDAY SO FAR …
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CBS
“Face the Nation”: Speaker Nancy Pelosi … Scott Gottlieb … Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger … David Becker.
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MSNBC
“The Sunday Show”: Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) … Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) … Rep. Colin Allred (D-Texas) … Fiona Hill … Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.).
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FOX
“Fox News Sunday”: Miami Mayor Francis Suarez. Panel: Karl Rove, Gillian Turner and Juan Williams.
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Gray TV
“Full Court Press”: Joseph Kanter … Mikael Dolsten.
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ABC
“This Week”: Panel: Jonathan Karl, Chris Christie, Donna Brazile and Julie Pace.
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CNN
“Inside Politics”: Panel: Jonathan Martin, Catherine Lucey, Eva McKend, Paul Kane and Ashish Jha.
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NBC
“Meet the Press”: Panel: Peter Alexander, Cornell Belcher, Sara Fagen and Anna Palmer.
PLAYBOOKERS
At a House event remembering Jan. 6, Lin-Manuel Miranda introduced several “Hamilton” cast members, who commemorated a deadly riot at which people shouted “hang Mike Pence” by performing a song from a musical about a man who got in a duel with a VP.
Dick Cheney checked out the marble bust of himself while visiting the Senate side of the Capitol. “He said it was ‘a little bit’ weird to see himself in stone,” reports HuffPost’s Igor Bobic.
Adam Kinzinger missed the House’s Jan. 6 commemorations, as many people noted. The congressman explained why via Twitter: He’s expecting the imminent birth of his child.
Mike Pompeo lost 90 pounds in six months.
Pete Buttigieg called Chuck Schumer to talk about the New Yorker’s long passion: the Second Avenue subway line.
BACK TO SCHOOL — Former Trump White House aide Omarosa Manigault Newman has recently enrolled as a law student at Southern University Law Center in Baton Rouge, La. Manigault Newman — who already has a master’s degree in telecom law and has studied the Bible at a theological seminary — told Daniel Lippman that she plans to focus on telecom law and policy after graduating. “I love it,” she said. “I got a 3.5 in my first semester.” She said she first became interested in telecom issues when she worked in the White House for then-VP Al Gore. But it was really the 2011 murder of her brother that pushed her to become a lawyer. “When I was sitting in the courtroom with the monster who murdered him, I felt helpless. I felt like I wanted to do something,” she said.
MEDIA MOVE — Daniel Bush is the new White House correspondent for Newsweek on the Washington enterprise team. He previously was senior political reporter at PBS NewsHour.
TRANSITIONS — D.J. Jordan will be chief of staff to Virginia A.G.-elect Jason Miyares. He currently is an SVP at Pinkston, and is a James Lankford alum. … Kayte Steinmetz will be a senior account supervisor on Edelman’s financial comms/capital markets team. She previously was an editorial producer at CNN’s “Erin Burnett OutFront.”
ENGAGED — Christiana Holcomb, legal counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom, and Mark Kiefer, a Ph.D. student at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and former aviation engineer, got engaged recently. He met her in Nashville with a dozen roses, took her back to the little Italian restaurant where they first met and then proposed at sunset along the river. The couple were introduced through mutual friends. Pic
WELCOME TO THE WORLD — Darien Flowers, deputy policy director for the Senate Commerce GOP, and Kirsten Flowers, a manager at Eagle Hill Consulting, welcomed Olivia Nicole Flowers, their first child, on Saturday. Pic … Another pic
— Sarah Schmidt, head of government relations for health at Palantir and a Rob Portman alum, and Mark Gilbride, who works in government and industry relations at Freddie Mac and is a Steve Stivers alum, on Tuesday welcomed Ellie Anne Gilbride, who came in at 8 lbs, 1 oz and 20 inches.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Sens. John Thune (R-S.D.) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.) … Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.) … NSC’s Yohannes Abraham … Dave Banks … The Atlantic’s Conor Friedersdorf … Jon Clark … Meta’s Nick Clegg … Adam Entous … CMS’ Ernie Tai … Alex Milofsky of Val Demings’ Florida Senate campaign … Fox Business Network’s Dagen McDowell … Maura Keefe of Keefe Strategies … NBC’s John Reiss … Cherie Short of the Giving Groupe … Stewart Boss of Sen. Jacky Rosen’s (D-Nev.) office … Megan Clarke of Fox News … Lauren Harmon Murphy of Swing Left … Stewart Verdery of Monument Advocacy … Rishi Sahgal … APCO’s Tim Kraus … Holly Shulman … Max Mallory of Hamilton Place Strategies … Linda Douglass … former Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Calif.) … Axios’ Ben Geman … Greg Bury … Ashley Callen … Monica Lee … Cory Crowley … Brett Shogren … Judge Paul D. Borman … Jordan Karem … Katie Couric … Taylor Gee
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26.) AMERICAN MINUTE
Fort Mims’ Massacre, Battle of New Orleans & General Andrew Jackson – American Minute with Bill Federer
Battle of New Orleans & General Andrew Jackson – American Minute with Bill Federer Fort Mims’ Massacre
Colonel Andrew Jackson was sent to fight the Red Stick Creek Indians. He defeated them in the Battle of Horseshoe Bend, March 27, 1814.
27.) CAFFEINATED THOUGHTS
28.) CONSERVATIVE DAILY NEWS
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29.) PJ MEDIA
30.) WHITE HOUSE DOSSIER
31.) THE DISPATCH
The Morning Dispatch: Biden Decries Trump’s ‘Web of Lies’
Plus: Violent protests in Kazakhstan.
| The Dispatch Staff |
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Happy Friday! Sen. Ted Cruz is very, very, very sorry that he referred to January 6 as a “violent terrorist attack” earlier this week. Please forgive him, 2024 presidential primary voters, he’ll never do it again.
Quick Hits: Today’s Top Stories
- North Korean state media claimed on Thursday that the test missile the country launched earlier this week was hypersonic—not ballistic as Japanese and South Korean officials reported—and that it hit its target 700 kilometers away. If true, it would be the country’s second test of hypersonic technology, which renders missiles much more difficult to detect and intercept. Secretary of State Antony Blinken condemned the launch on Wednesday in a call with Japan’s foreign minister, Hayashi Yoshimasa.
- According to Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey, U.S. mortgage rates reached their highest levels since May 2020 this week. “With higher inflation, promising economic growth and a tight labor market, we expect rates will continue to rise,” said Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist.
- Chicago Public School classes are canceled for a third consecutive day today as the district’s teachers union continues to urge its members to stay home from work due to concerns about the Omicron variant. CPS administrators and city officials continue to maintain that in-person instruction is both safe and necessary, and that only the roughly 10 percent of teachers who have shown up at schools the past two days will be paid.
- The New York Times announced Thursday it had reached an agreement to acquire The Athletic—a digital sports media outlet—for $550 million, with the transaction likely to be completed in the first quarter of 2022.
- Initial jobless claims increased by 7,000 week-over-week to 207,000 last week according to the Labor Department, remaining near record lows.
President Biden Goes After ‘The Former Guy’
Since he was sworn into office last year, President Joe Biden really hasn’t talked about Donald Trump that much. His allies in Congress and the media certainly do—and Gov.-elect Glenn Youngkin thanks them for it—but Biden mentioned Trump sparingly in 2021, often referring to him only as “the former guy” or “his predecessor” when doing so.
Asked about the Republican standard-bearer last month, Biden brusquely responded that he “[doesn’t] think about the former president.”
All that changed Thursday, as Biden tore into Trump in a blistering speech marking the first anniversary of the January 6 riots. “The former president of the United States of America has created and spread a web of lies about the 2020 election,” Biden said, standing in the Capitol’s Statuary Hall. “He’s done so because he values power over principle, because he sees his own interests as more important than his country’s interests and America’s interests, and because his bruised ego matters more to him than our democracy or our Constitution.”
Speaking for about 25 minutes, Biden expressed gratitude for the law enforcement officers who heroically defended the Capitol a year earlier, and asked viewers to picture in their minds some of the horrifying images from that day. He defended the results of the 2020 election—the most “closely scrutinized” one in American history—and described the strain democracy is currently under worldwide.
“[Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin] have actually told me democracy is too slow, too bogged down by division to succeed in today’s rapidly changing, complicated world,” he said. “They’re betting America will become more like them and less like us. They’re betting that America is a place for the autocrat, the dictator, the strongman. I do not believe that. That is not who we are. That is not who we have ever been. And that is not who we should ever, ever be.”
Biden was at his most fiery when discussing Trump, whom he described as having “held a dagger at the throat” of American democracy. “He has done what no president in American history—the history of this country—has ever, ever done: He refused to accept the results of an election, and the will of the American people,” Biden said. “He’s not just a former president. He’s a defeated former president.”
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham described the speech as “brazen politicization of January 6,” and, in a way, he was correct: Any discussion of what happened that day is going to be political, because more than half the Republican congressional delegation stood behind the lies that led to the riot, and people like Graham are actively rooting for the man most responsible for the tragedy to return to the White House. Still, Biden in his remarks yesterday attempted to differentiate Republicans who aren’t willing to grapple with Trump’s authoritarianism from the vanishingly few who are.
Chaos in Kazakhstan
What began as internal demonstrations in Kazakhstan opposing increased fuel prices has swelled into a geopolitical crisis after unrest spread and the country’s president, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, appealed to a Russia-led military alliance to deploy troops in response. Fighting between security forces and protesters transformed the snow-cloaked city of Almaty into a virtual warzone as explosions, gunfire, and burning cars and buildings filled the main square. The United States has bolstered security forces around its embassy, and officials reportedly contemplated evacuating American diplomats and citizens from the country.
As of early Friday morning, Kazakhstan’s interior ministry reported that 18 police officers and 26 protesters had been killed in the clashes. More than 3,000 others have been arrested.
“Calls to attack premises of civilian and military agencies are absolutely illegal. This is a crime and legal punishment may follow,” Tokayev said in a speech delivered on Wednesday. “I appeal to young people: do not ruin your life path and [the lives] of your loved ones. All your legitimate requests and demands will be carefully taken into account, appropriate decisions will be made.”
Overnight, Tokayev delivered a far more ominous address, announcing that he’d authorized law enforcement to “fire without warning” and shoot to kill the “terrorists” participating in the unrest. “Those who don’t surrender will be eliminated,” he said. “What negotiations can be held with criminals, murderers?”
Protests initially broke out in the Mangistau region on Sunday, after the government lifted a price cap on heavily subsidized liquefied petroleum gas. The fuel—on which many, particularly in Kazakhstan’s west, are reliant—more than doubled in price overnight. The government has since reversed its decision to lift the cap, but dissent had already gripped other areas of the former Soviet republic, culminating in a nationwide call for greater political freedom.
The bulk of the protesters’ ire has been directed at Nursultan Nazarbayev, Kazakhstan’s leader for nearly three decades following the Soviet Union’s dissolution. Despite stepping down as president in 2019 in favor of a hand-picked successor, the former Communist Party leader had remained steeped in Kazakhstan’s governance as chair of the Security Council. Demonstrators chanted “Shal, ket!”—Kazakh for “Old man out!”—in opposition to Nazarbayev’s decades of dictatorial rule.
In an effort to placate the gatherings, Tokayev dismissed Nazarbayev and other government officials and declared a two-week state of emergency. Several military vehicles and troops deployed to Almaty, where protesters had stormed the presidential palace and police headquarters and reportedly occupied the airport. Kazakhstan’s state-run channel, Khabar 24, broadcast that two police officers had been decapitated in what it described as “direct proof of the rioting groups’ terrorist and extremist nature.”
Worth Your Time
- Earlier this week, Jon Ward—Yahoo News’ chief national correspondent who previously worked for Tucker Carlson at The Daily Caller—published a systematic and thorough assessment of the various claims his former boss makes in his Patriot Purge documentary about the January 6 riots. “That examination shows Carlson makes alarming claims that are built on flimsy or inaccurate evidence, or does not consider information that contradicts his narrative,” he concludes. “Ultimately, he uses legitimate concerns—about FBI abuses of power in the past, about the ability of the government to conduct digital surveillance, and about treatment of prisoners—to weave a story about Jan. 6 that ends up making claims that aren’t supported by facts.” To get ahead of the story, Carlson attacked Ward on his show, claiming the reporter had “edited the transcript” of the documentary. This is false, as Ward explains in a subsequent post that includes his text message correspondence with Carlson. “In reality, I was texting him portions of my notes to fact-check a piece which had not yet been published, to make sure that our piece was accurate when it was published,” he writes. “Tucker called this ‘an example of media dishonesty.’ It was in fact the opposite: it was an example of basic journalism 101, preventing partial or incorrect information from going into the public square. The irony is that Tucker’s ‘Patriot Purge’ special is chock full of partial information, along with outright inaccuracies.”
- GOP Rep. John Katko of upstate New York voted to impeach former President Trump, voted to censure Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, worked to negotiate a bipartisan January 6 commission, voted to hold Steve Bannon in contempt of Congress, and voted for the bipartisan infrastructure package. He’s still a strong favorite to hold onto his seat next year. In a piece for Politico, Michael Kruse tries to figure out why. “There’s a level of independence there that I think is attractive to a moderate district,” said Ryan McMahon, a Republican Onondaga County executive. “And it drives the far right and the far left nuts.” Katko, thus far, has two Republican primary challengers—but neither are viewed as particularly serious. “It’s a year after the Capitol insurrection. It’s a year after John Katko voted for impeachment. Where, [Onondaga GOP chair Benedicte] Doran wondered at the Panera, is the person who’s going to punish him by beating him in a primary?” Kruse writes. “Where is Donald Trump’s endorsement? ‘Nobody wants to back a guy who’s not going to win,’ she told me. ‘My opinion is nobody has come forward and they’re making excuses because they know they can’t beat him.’”
- We wrote to you on Tuesday about Omicron driving K-12 schools back into remote learning, but it isn’t just younger kids who are losing access to in-person instruction again—Yale, UCLA, Duke, Stanford, Michigan State, and many other colleges and universities have shifted their plans as well. For The Atlantic, Brown University economist Emily Oster argues this is a mistake. “I don’t know if universities were right to go largely or fully remote in 2020. The world before vaccines was a different one, and the choices were difficult,” she writes. “I am certain, though, that moving to remote instruction is the wrong choice now. … Universities also have a responsibility to their students. And this is not just a minor responsibility; it is their core responsibility. Parents entrust their children to universities. Many professors—myself included—have looked those parents in the eye and told them a version of I will watch out for your child. We have a responsibility to follow through on this now. We can do it very simply: by letting them go to school.”
Presented Without Comment
Presented Without Comment
CSPAN @cspan
.@SpeakerPelosi introduces @Lin_Manuel who introduces other Hamilton cast members to sing “Dear Theodosia.” https://t.co/rNRprgGrau
Presented Without Comment
Nicholas Kristof, a former New York Times columnist, does not qualify to run for governor in Oregon this year because he failed to meet a three-year residency requirement, officials said Thursday. He said he planned to challenge the decision in court. 
Toeing the Company Line
- Stirewaltisms is here! In the first installment of his new political newsletter, Chris dives into Nancy Pelosi’s potential retirement, the increasingly bizarre Ohio GOP senate primary, Ted Cruz’s preemptive impeachment talk, Larry Hogan laying the groundwork for a presidential campaign, and the first anniversary of January 6. “We’re the ones who get to decide whether January 6 was the start of something or the end of something,” he writes.
- On Thursday’s Advisory Opinions, David and Sarah previewed the vaccine mandate oral arguments set to take place at the Supreme Court in a few hours, and examined the potential Electoral Count Act reforms that have become all the rage in recent weeks. Can Congress save America from further electoral chaos?
- On the site today, David J. Kramer writes that the threat of a Russian invasion of Ukraine is real, but that, contrary to what some experts have said, Vladimir Putin has not backed himself into a corner.
- Weifeng Zhong notes that Xi Jinping is cracking down on private investment in Chinese media companies, giving more power to state-run outlets. He says that it’s time for the U.S. to up its game on open-source intelligence.
Reporting by Declan Garvey (@declanpgarvey), Andrew Egger (@EggerDC), Charlotte Lawson (@lawsonreports), Audrey Fahlberg (@AudreyFahlberg), Ryan Brown (@RyanP_Brown), Harvest Prude (@HarvestPrude), and Steve Hayes (@stephenfhayes).
Subscribe to The Morning Dispatch
An essential daily news roundup, TMD includes a brief look at important stories of the day and original reporting and analysis from The Dispatch team, along with recommendations for deeper reading and some much-needed humor in these often fraught times.
32.) LEGAL INSURRECTION
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33.) THE DAILY WIRE
34.) DESERET NEWS
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35.) BRIGHT
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36.) AMERICAN THINKER
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37.) LARRY J. SABATO’S CRYSTAL BALL
38.) THE BLAZE
39.) THE FEDERALIST
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40.) REUTERS
Friday, January 7, 2022 by Farouq Suleiman |
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HelloHere’s what you need to know.Biden blasts Trump’s ‘web of lies,’ U.S. hospitals delay surgeries due to surge in COVID-19 cases and Kazakh president gives shoot-to-kill order to put down uprising. |
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Today’s biggest stories
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President Joe Biden gives remarks in the Statuary Hall of the U.S. Capitol during a ceremony on the first anniversary of the January 6 attack, Washington, D.C., January 6, 2022. REUTERS/Drew Angerer
Troops are seen at the main square where hundreds of people were protesting against the government, Almaty, Kazakhstan January 6, 2022. REUTERS/Mariya Gordeyeva
The New York Stock Exchange is pictured amid the coronavirus pandemic in the Manhattan borough of New York City, U.S., April 16, 2021. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri |
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Quote of the day“In general, the registration system was bad from the start, and it got worse with the hacker attack, so we’re really under water.”Gonzalo Vecina Former head of Brazilian health regulator Anvisa and professor at the University of Sao Paulo Weak testing, data outage leave Brazil ‘in the dark’ as Omicron advances
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The U.S. Congress’ probe of the deadly Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol by Trump supporters soon begins weeks of public hearings that will put the investigation in the spotlight as campaigning intensifies for the November elections.
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And finally…
‘Boba Fett’ actors on the gangsters of the new ‘Star Wars’ series “The Book of Boba Fett,” a new “Star Wars” series, fleshes out the life story of a mysterious bounty hunter who captivated fans with brief appearances in 1980’s “The Empire Strikes Back” and 1983’s “Return of the Jedi.”
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41.) NOQ REPORT
42.) ARRA NEWS SERVICE
43.) REDSTATE
44.) WORLD NET DAILY
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46.) BIZPAC REVIEW
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48.) NBC MORNING RUNDOWN
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To ensure delivery to your inbox add email@mail.nbcnews.com to your contacts  Today’s Top Stories from NBC News FRIDAY, JANUARY 7, 2022 Good morning, NBC News readers.
We have in-depth coverage from the dramatic first anniversary of the Jan. 6th attack on the Capitol, including analysis of President Joe Biden’s speech and why it matters.
Here’s that and everything else we’re watching this Friday morning.
 President Biden pinned responsibility for the horrors of the Jan. 6 Capitol attack on Donald Trump in an impassioned speech Thursday, one year on from events that were seen around the world.
“The former president of the United States of America has created and spread a web of lies about the 2020 election. He has done so because he values power over principle, because he sees his own interest as more important than his country’s interest, than America’s interest,” Biden said.
“And because his bruised ego matters more to him than our democracy or our Constitution, he can’t accept he lost.”
It was a rare moment during Biden’s presidency when he stepped outside his cloak of unity and directly blamed the violent upheaval on Trump.
Biden made sure to explicitly and simply state the obvious: “He is not just the former president. He is a defeated former president.”
“This is something that will be welcomed by almost every Democrat,” said longtime Democratic operative Simon Rosenberg, the president of NDN, a center-left think tank based in Washington.
Also on the Jan. 6 anniversary:
Friday’s Top Stories
 The court will hear arguments about federal vaccination or testing requirements for large employers and a vaccination mandate for some health care workers.  We asked four public health experts and all advised vaccinated people not to return fully to pre-pandemic life — but there was no firm consensus around activities such as air travel.  Kazakhstan, which is the size of Western Europe, is strategically and economically important to Russia and China, experts said.  OPINION The church pushes for more children even as it erects barriers to couples actually having them — among other inconsistencies, according to writer Celia Viggo Wexler. Also in the News
Editor’s Pick
 Sammy Hagar, a former Van Halen singer, called Cabo San Lucas “my hometown” after being awarded the position. Select
Is a smart thermostat right for you? Should you invest in a learning smart thermostat? We asked the experts. One Fun Thing
 A former actor returned to Broadway to play Elphaba in “Wicked” after the show experienced Covid-related cast shortages earlier this week.
Carla Stickler was previously the understudy for Elphaba in the national tour and Broadway companies of “Wicked,” according to her website.
Stickler stepped away in 2015 to begin a new career as a software engineer, but when she was called back to the Broadway stage about seven years later, she didn’t miss a beat.
Read more here.
Thanks for reading the Morning Rundown.
If you have any comments — likes, dislikes — send me an email at: patrick.smith@nbcuni.com.
Thanks, Patrick Smith
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55.) REALCLEARPOLITICS MORNING NOTE
56.) REALCLEARPOLITICS TODAY
57.) CENTER FOR SECURITY POLICY
58.) BERNARD GOLDBERG
59.) SARA A. CARTER
60.) TWITCHY
61.) HOT AIR
62.) 1440 DAILY DIGEST
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63.) AMERICAN INSTITUTE FOR ECONOMIC RESEARCH
64.) NATIONAL REVIEW
65.) POLITICAL WIRE
66.) RASMUSSEN REPORTS
67.) ZEROHEDGE
68.) GATEWAY PUNDIT
69.) FRONTPAGE MAG
70.) HOOVER INSTITUTE
71.) DAILY INTELLIGENCE BRIEF
72.) FOUNDATION FOR ECONOMIC EDUCATION
73.) POPULIST PRESS
After Trump’s Senate impeachment trial last February, Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) introduced a bill permitting the attorney general to claim that an officeholder violated the provision and should be barred from holding future office before a three-judge panel.
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TOP STORIES:
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Trump May Not Be Eligible in 2024…
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Tucker Gets Into Huge Fight With Ted Cruz On Fox News
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Trump responds in a big way!
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Juror Busted — Maxwell Could Now Go Free…
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Election Whistleblower Blows Lid Off Massive Fraud Operation For Biden
- Bannon Warns Trump About Lindsey Graham…
- Scientist Has Good News About Omicron…
- Jan 6th Committee Now Targeting Members Of The Media…
- DEMOCRATS DEVASTATING NEW SCAM TO STEAL ELECTIONS…
- ‘Very Strange’ Omicron Symptom Identified…
- FBI AGENT CAUGHT RED HANDED IN MAJOR PLOT…
- ‘People Are Going To JAIL’ Over Massive Election Fraud Findings
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IN DEPTH…
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- Florida to Distribute 1 Million COVID-19 Tests 1 hour ago
- DeSantis SLAMS Democrats J6 circus 1 hour ago
- Pelosi Accused Of Her own Jan. 6 Role… 2 hours ago
- Omicron 83% Lower hospitalized Than Delta 2 hours ago
- 9/11 First Responders and Families Pissed Off at Dems… 3 hours ago
- SECDef to testify on Afghanistan Withdrawal 3 hours ago
- Eric Swalwell Latest Democrat Caught Maskless in Florida 3 hours ago
- CDC: Booster for Kids 33 mins ago
- Sen: Withdraw School Memo to FBI 33 mins ago
- Marine who criticized Afghan withdrawal running 33 mins ago
- Iran Sanctions Relief Funds Terrorism… 2 hours ago
- How Has The FBI Made Zero Progress on J6 Pipe Bomber… 2 hours ago
- Jan 6th: Biden to target Trump… 2 hours ago
- NASCAR Recants ‘LGB’ Approval 3 hours ago
- Unvaxxed Tennis star booted from Australia 3 hours ago
- Protesters: NBC Drop Genocide Olympics! 3 hours ago
- Bette Midler Observes January 6 Capitol Riot: “The Shock to Me Was as Great as 9/11” 3 hours ago
- 2022 Grammys postponed indefinitely due to Omicron fears 3 hours ago
- Study: Celebrity-Obsessed People Are Less Intelligent 3 hours ago
- ‘The View’s’ Ana Navarro Claims Donald Trump ‘Not Legitimately’ Elected In 2016 3 hours ago
- U.S. Destroys Rocket Launcher Sites in Syria As Attacks Increase Against Coalition 3 hours ago
- The Return of Battlefield Nuclear Weapons 3 hours ago
- Gary Sinise pays tribute to oldest WWII veteran Lawrence Brooks following his death: ‘An American hero’ 3 hours ago
- 2022 Will See China and Russia Threaten the Peace 3 hours ago
- Gear Mishap Forces F‑35A Stealth Fighter to Make ‘Belly Landing’ in South Korea 3 hours ago
- North Korea Fires Suspected Ballistic Missile into Sea 3 hours ago
- What’s Jan. 6 Really About? 3 hours ago
- Israel inks $3 billion deal for KC-46 tankers, CH-53 helos 3 hours ago
- The Democrats’ Exploitation of January 6 Gives Away Their Game 3 hours ago
- Adam Schiff Says Trump ‘Adviser’ Sean Hannity Needs To Answer To January 6 Committee 3 hours ago
- Chicago teachers union claims Lightfoot locked them out of online classrooms 3 hours ago
- Pelosi Owns The J6 Commission, And That’s Why It Failed 3 hours ago
- Georgia Officials Launch Investigation Into Illegal Ballot Harvesting. 3 hours ago
- Olympics Committee Can’t Confirm Its Beijing Merchandise Wasn’t Made by Chinese Slaves 3 hours ago
- UPDATE 1‑Kremlin warns against outside interference in Kazakhstan 3 hours ago
- Taiwan air force stages drill to intercept Chinese planes amid tensions 3 hours ago
- Reports: China Building Bridge Across Indian Border Lake 3 hours ago
- Kazakhstan declares state of emergency in protest-hit city, province 3 hours ago
- To Drive Visits, Taco Bell Launches Taco-a-Day Subscription Program 3 hours ago
- Google Maps helps Italian police capture mafia fugitive 3 hours ago
- Walgreens Earnings Get Lift From COVID Vaccines and Testing, Raises Forecast 3 hours ago
- Ford shares rise 12% after news of production increase for electric F‑150 Lightning pickup 3 hours ago
- Top Clinton Economist Labels Biden Administration’s Proposal to Curb Inflation ‘Science Denial
- Car prices remain high as Chinese-made semiconductor shortage keeps inventories low 3 hours ago
- Communist China Dethrones Hollywood as Box Office Revenue Becomes Highest in World 3 hours ago
- One-Day $10 Billion Profit Erases Turkey Central Bank Losses 3 hours ago
- Metaverse Concerts Flop 3 hours ago
- Climate Change Dictators Coming 3 hours ago
- Medical Ethics Professor: Deny Unvaccinated Americans Affordable Health Insurance 4 hours ago
- Chicago Remote Learning Back 4 hours ago
- Schumer: Eliminating Filibuster A ‘Doomsday’ 4 hours ago
- ‘Led by data and science’: White House defends confusion over new COVID-19 isolation rules 4 hours ago
- Lindsey Graham warned Trump of ‘peril’ of holding Jan. 6 anniversary press conference 4 hours ago
- Sinema to Senate Dems: Absolutely no nuclear option or filibuster change 4 hours ago
- Left Launches Effort to Win Midterms by Disqualifying Republicans for ‘Insurrection’ 4 hours ago
- Democrat Bill: No ID for Absentee 4 hours ago
- Federal authorities won’t say why armed Capitol rioters disappeared from FBI’s most wanted list 4 hours ago
- Psaki says Biden will speak about the ‘truth’ of what happened on Jan. 6 4 hours ago
- CNN’s 4th Quarter Primetime Viewership Collapses 73% to Just 642K 4 hours ago
- Garland DOJ Blocks GOP Involvement In Jan. 6 Probe 4 hours ago
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Did a friend forward this? Subscribe here. Welcome to the Friday edition of Internet Insider, where we review the week online. TODAY:
 BREAK THE INTERNET The first week of 2022 is already chaotic What energy is guiding you through the beginning of 2022? For some, it’s a chaotic energy—like Pabst Blue Ribbon’s (now deleted) tweet about what you should do instead of Dry January. Or perhaps you’re following Elmo in his refusal to believe a pet rock is real. “The way @elmo refuses to let Zoey gaslight him is the kind of energy I’m bringing to 2022,” tweeted @LilyMarsWrites. There’s a lot of “fuck it” energy going around. Part of that is because we’ve now entered year three of the pandemic, and the U.S. hit over a million cases on Monday. Looking ahead is difficult. But people are still trying to make the best of 2022, either by playing the latest popular online word game (see below), or by attempting to resuscitate old fashion trends. Strap in. This is going to be another weird year.
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Even if you’ve never played Wordle, you might recognize it from the emoji that have cropped up on Twitter lately. The tweets usually include a string of green, yellow, and black or white squares.
It’s a low-stakes game that costs nothing to play—you don’t even need an app for it, you access to a website—but the emoji formatting lets you brag about solving the puzzle. Plus, once you learn the backstory of how Josh Wardle originally created the game for his partner, the game even becomes a little romantic.
Read the full story here. —Michelle Jaworski, staff writer
DAILY DOT PICKS
 TIKTOK Is a twee ‘revival’ happening on TikTok? With the new year comes a new trend revival courtesy of TikTok, though, ultimately, Zooey Deschanel (who joined TikTok last year) might be responsible here.
As Embedded recently suggested, TikTok seems to be experiencing a “twee revival,” though not so much twee as it relates to British indie music of the ‘80s and ‘90s. No, this is twee of the 2010s Tumblr variety.
The 2008 She & Him song “Why Do You Let Me Stay Here?” accompanies many of the TweeTok videos. (It’s been used in more than 3,600 TikToks.) This aesthetic revival might also coincide with the 2009 Deschanel rom-com (500) Days of Summer arriving on Hulu last year.
Read the full story here.
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 Friday 01.07.22 Here’s a tip if you are among the millions of people quitting your job: Don’t cash out your 401(k)! As tempting as it may seem, there are other options that will give you better returns in the long run. Here’s what else you need to know to Get Up to Speed and On With Your Day.  Drivers stuck on the Western Kentucky Parkway due to winter weather conditions.  Extreme weather
More than 60 million people are under winter weather alerts across the US as several storm systems grip the country. On the West Coast, record-breaking rain and snowmelt in Washington and California are causing river flooding and avalanches. Across much of the South, dropping temperatures are causing icy road conditions that have led to massive backups and accidents in states like Kentucky, where a more than 20 car pile-up yesterday brought traffic to a halt. On the East coast, a fast-moving winter storm is expected to drop several inches of snow on New York, Massachusetts and parts of the mid-Atlantic this weekend. Forecasters say this will create even more disruptions, including school closures, flight cancellations and problems for emergency responders.
Capitol riot
House Democrats seem to be interested in highlighting the effects of last year’s Capitol insurrection as part of their midterm election strategy, even though some are still debating how much to actually talk about the attack on the campaign trail. Yesterday, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee rolled out a new messaging on its website declaring “Republicans incited an insurrection.” The site also highlights the 139 Republicans who voted to overturn the 2020 election, and GOP lawmakers who may have promoted election lies. Meanwhile, we’re still learning more about what happened during the attack. An unnamed former Trump White House official says former President Donald Trump initially did not want to tweet “stay peaceful” as the riot got out of hand. Leaders of the House committee investigating the insurrection say they’re not ruling out the possibility of concluding Trump’s actions on January 6 constituted a crime.
Kazakhstan
The President of Kazakhstan has ordered security forces to “kill without warning” in an effort to crush to violent protests raging in the country. What began as demonstrations against rising fuel prices has grown to include larger, long-simmering political grievances. President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, however, claims the increasingly violent conditions were caused by “terrorists” and “specialists trained in ideological sabotage.” Dozens of people have been killed in the violence. Tokayev has appealed to the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization for assistance. The unrest, which experts say is an inevitable consequence of a government ignoring the needs and pleas of its people, is also posing a problem for Russia — which maintains close relations with Kazakhstan and relies on a spaceport there.
Coronavirus
The CDC predicts more than 84,000 people in the US could die of Covid-19 over the next month. Health experts say this forecast may not even fully account for the emergence of the Omicron variant and the spike in cases linked to holiday travel. Yesterday, the World Health Organization said global coronavirus cases “increased sharply” last week in comparison to the previous week. In New South Wales, the most populous state in Australia, authorities have announced new crackdowns on large gatherings, prohibiting singing and dancing in pubs, clubs, and restaurants. But in California, local health officials say next month’s Super Bowl is expected to go ahead as planned in Los Angeles despite the latest surge of cases in the region.
India
Six people were killed and more than 20 hospitalized after inhaling toxic gas caused by an illegal dump of waste chemicals at a dyeing and printing mill in India. Local officials say they think the chemicals, which were offloaded from a tanker near the mill, reacted with other chemicals in the water to produce the deadly leak. Police are investigating, but have yet to make any arrests. In 1984, India suffered the world’s worst industrial disaster when methyl isocyanate gas leaked from a pesticide factory in the city of Bhopal, killing more than 5,000 people and injuring more than half a million others.
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Bed Bath & Beyond is closing 37 stores Sadly, you may need to change your weekend kitchen appliance browsing routine.
BMW introduces color-changing concept SUV It’s basically like picking an outfit every day, but for your car.
Coca Cola is releasing a boozy version of a classic soda I’ve never liked canned cocktails, but Coca Cola, you may have what it takes to change my mind.  The three men who chased and murdered Ahmaud Arbery are due to return to a Georgia courthouse today for sentencing. Each man could face life in prison for their role in killing Arbery in 2020.  Which iconic piece of technology is now fully defunct after its company announced it will no longer support its software?
A. the original iPad
Take CNN’s weekly news quiz to see if you’re correct! $1,400 That’s the amount Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev received in a federal stimulus payment. The US Attorney’s Office of Massachusetts has filed a request to have that stimulus payment and other funds in Tsarnaev’s inmate trust account turned over to his victims while he serves a life sentence in Colorado. Four people were killed and hundreds of others were injured after Tsarnaev and his brother set off two bombs near the Boston Marathon finish line in 2013. 
You can’t love your country only when you win. You can’t obey the law only when it’s convenient. You can’t be patriotic when you embrace and enable lies.
President Joe Biden, in a fiery speech yesterday commemorating the anniversary of the January 6 insurrection. Biden thoroughly denounced participants in the riot and made the rare move of denouncing former President Donald Trump as a threat to democracy — without naming him outright.
Brought to you by CNN Underscored  The best wireless chargers to help you cut through desktop clutter A wireless charger is a convenient way to charge all of your devices without having cables clutter your desk. We tested 28 wireless chargers in search of the best options for iPhones, Androids and more. Here are the best chargers we found.
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99.) MARK LEVIN
January 5, 2022
On Wednesday’s Mark Levin Show, January 6th, 2020 wasn’t the best day in the history of our republic, but it sure wasn’t the worst. Democrats can’t make the case that there was a violent terrorist attack on January 6th because it would lead back to Nancy Pelosi. The media is pushing this narrative, along with Critical Race Theory, the unceasing attacks on all things Donald Trump, and the unequal justice that we saw in the Russian collusion hoax. It’s the left that uses phony TV experts to repeatedly paint Trump as an evil dictator despite having any proof. It is the Democrats that celebrate the attacks on police officers while supporting lawlessness in minority neighborhoods, promote the censorship of parents in public education and advance transgender policies in public schools rather than focus on educating children academically. Then, for those that have visited the battlefields of the U.S Civil War and in Arlington National Cemetery, they know that the vast majority of those that died are White Christian men. White Christian men that died defending the Union to end slavery. White Christian men, that died in service to their country, does that sound like White privilege to you? Afterward, Julie Kelly joins the show to discuss her new book “January 6: How Democrats Used the Capitol Protest to Launch a War on Terror Against the Political Right.”
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Merrick Garland: Justice Dept. has ‘no higher priority than charging, prosecuting Jan. 6 rioters
The podcast for this show can be streamed or downloaded from the Audio Rewind page.
Image used with permission of Getty Images / Roberto Schmidt
Rough transcript of Hour 1
Hour 1 Segment 1
To what extent are the media? The Democrat Party. And these radical Marxist movements. Responsible. For violence in this country. They’ve all come together. To focus on tomorrow. They cannot make the case. That President Trump authorized a violent attack against the Capitol building. Whereas Ted Cruz now puts it a attack by domestic terrorists, I suppose. They cannot make their case, so they’re trying to make the case that it’s a dereliction of duty. By the president, they’ve covered up Nancy Pelosi’s role, they will not release documents, texts, emails, they will not subpoena her records. They will not compel her testimony under penalty. Of criminal indictment. In the media, of course, are absolutely silent on this point. To what extent are the media and the Democrat Party? And these radical groups responsible. Responsible. For the violence that is taking place in this country. Who is it that’s pushing critical race theory? A racist Marxist ideology. Who is it that is pushing segregation? Who is it that covers up for a hunter Biden while going after the Trump children? Who is it that promotes Russia collusion and Russia collusion as many tributaries to it? Violations of the FISA law. Illegal felonious leaks. The media participation. The laundering of money. To create a dossier. The unequal justice that is applied to certain individuals. With SWAT teams included. But not other individuals who. Who triggered, funded and launched what is the greatest attack, in my view, on the republic? The phony oversight committees in Congress run by one party. The lies that were repeatedly told to the American people. About President Trump and Russia. The use of the FBI and the intelligence agencies. The use of the White House, including the Oval Office. The Democratic National Committee, the Hillary Clinton campaign. The phony experts who are brought on television programs. Who call white people racists. Day in and day out. Day in and day out. The phony experts they bring on TV. To call President Trump and his supporters. Hitlerian Stalinists. So forth and so on. The media. Were you can I tell the difference between the news and the opinion writers and the opinion speakers? Which have decided to destroy their entire profession, such as it was. To advance an ideology and to advance the cause of a party. Who is it? That unleashed the war against police officers. With brazen lies by Marxists like Black Lives Matter. A group celebrated by the corporatists. By professional athletes. By ESPN. Celebrated by the Democrat Party. Millions of dollars poured into their coffers. They haven’t done a damn thing for black people and never will. A Marxist movement that embraces critical race theory. And pushes their agenda. These corporate is Comcast, they own NBC and MSNBC, MSNBC, the Homejoy, Reid. And other individuals who are flat out racists and bigots. Homophobes and anti-Semite. Who are given voice because they’re radical leftists or they’re professors. But there are members of Congress or their members, a particular ethnicity. CNN. Which spends 90 percent of its time advancing the cause of the Democrat Party, trashing the Fox News network, trashing its viewers. With phony reporters and journalists, all of whom are former Democrats. You’ve worked in politics. Look at the Sunday shows. There’s not a dime’s worth of difference between them. How can that be? Same mindset. Same lack of moral, same lack of values. The attack on the American system, the attack on American values, the attack on people as a result of their race, white people. The attack on people who are. Holding deeply to their faith, evangelicals, Orthodox Jews. Open season. Open season. And at the same time, the American people are put down. The same time they’re put down. They have no say in what’s taking place in this country. If a Department of Justice led by a man who unleashes the FBI, the domestic terrorism unit, the national security unit, the U.S. attorney’s office, the criminal division, the civil rights division against parents protesting a school board meeting, it’s against the teachers unions, against critical race theory, against the destruction. The destruction of the family structure. With a transgender movement. Then federal law enforcement, which is colluding. With a national school board association’s and the teachers unions and anybody else. Who opposes? Parent involvement and what their kids are learning. You have a woman who was promoted by The New York Times, the so-called 1619 project, who spews her racism in her hate for this country, who says she doesn’t understand why parents should have any say in education. After all, they’re not experts. They’re not experts. You have a Democrat Party that spent two and a half years working with the media, one in the same. To try and reverse the 2016 election, first deny the winner. Then try to destroy the winner. Two phony impeachment’s, one phony criminal investigation, multiple phony coup efforts. A federal bureaucracy utterly under control, starting with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. You had people in this country who work hard and pay taxes who are told they don’t work hard enough and they don’t pay enough taxes while they watch people they subsidize on the dole, not working. Receiving funds, not contributing to society. As Bernie Sanders pushes his welfare state. Communist model on the nation. With the. With the the aggressive support of the Democrat Party. And the use of language that Republican legislatures that are trying to to return to some kind of semblance of a rational election system where they can actually determine if votes are legitimate or not. Called Jim Crow. The Democrat Party using Jim Crow against Republicans, isn’t that ironic? Well, the Democrat Party and their media thugs and mouthpieces. Are pushing an agenda, they call it voting rights. Which has nothing to do with voting rights and everything to do with the permanent empowerment of the Democrat Party and a one party state. That same party destroying the filibuster to get whatever it can get, that same party trying to destroy the independence of the judiciary. Because it demands conformity, it demands power. It demands allegiance, that same party working with big tech to shut down all debate. All debate that does not conform to the message of the current Democrat Party government. But the Democrat Party period, you have one of these robber barons in the name of Zukerberg who poured over 400 million dollars into the last race. To effectively elect Democrats and Joe Biden. Under the radar, he comes under no scrutiny whatsoever, none. None. You have hundreds of millions in dark money, unreported funds being used to back. Mark Allies, who is a reprobate lawyer. Who has spent years trying to change the election process? To ensure that Democrats win. And when there’s any pushback against any of this, whether it’s parents at school board meetings. Whether it’s taxpayers. Whether it’s talk show hosts, whether it’s individuals on Fox News. Whether it’s authors, any pushback whatsoever. It has to be crushed. These same people. Who hate this country. Are now trying to define January 6th. The same people who celebrated. Or accepted? We’ve been denied the violence of the riots that cost over two billion dollars in damage, directly resulting in the loss lives of dozens of people. That involved the. The army. The battery of thousands and thousands of law enforcement police officers. That caused anarchy and trauma, that was clearly an effort to overthrow this government. There’s no commission investigating any of it. The FBI is applying most of its resources to January six. Black Lives Matter is celebrated at the NBA in the NFL, it’s celebrated. On certain streets in Washington, D.C. and New York City and around the country. Despite its allegiance and its funding support from individuals. Including those who are part of the Weather Underground. Who actually blew up the Capitol building, the Pentagon, the State Department, and went back again to the Capitol building? The media lie about January six, we all saw it. We all know there were some violent thugs who deserved to be prosecuted for their attacks on the cops in the building. But we also know there weren’t a thousand of them. We also know there weren’t half a million of them. We also know there weren’t 800,000 of them. We also know. Now, President Trump had nothing to do with it. And you know how I know that, ladies and gentlemen, it would have. A leaked. Because this committee is leaking everything to their favorite radical media sources. And why are we to believe the media, why are we to believe the Democrat Party and their surrogates? Do they have the best interest of you in mind and the truth and mind? The Democrat Party has been an evil evil party overall, an evil entity with its support of slavery and segregation, its support of the Klan and lynching. Even way up into the 1960s and late and early 70s. Elements of the Democrat Party had to be put down and. So black people and other minorities in this country could enjoy the right to vote and any semblance of equality. And today, they still reject Americanism as they embrace Marxism. And the media, this would be the same media, The New York Times, that covered up the Holocaust. And who’s main reporter in Berlin was a supporter of Hitler. That covered up the slaughter, the Ukrainians by Stalin, whose main reporter in Moscow was a supporter of Stalin. And covered up the real intentions of Castro, whose main reporter was a Castro supporter. That New York Times. I’ll be right back.
Hour 1 Segment 2
I would actually read. I would ask these. But these these individuals. Who are so racist in their daily commentary, I would ask, have you ever visited Arlington National Cemetery? Have you ever walk through the rows and rows and rows of headstones in Arlington National Cemetery? It goes on and on and on and on for ACRS. Men and women who gave their life to this country, their lives. The overwhelming majority of them were white male Christians. That doesn’t sound like white privilege to me, the overwhelming majority white male, Christian. How about the Civil War battlefields? Have they ever visited the Civil War battlefields? And while it’s true, the overwhelming majority who fought for the Confederacy were white, the numbers were bigger on the Union side. Again, the vast majority of whom were white to end slavery.
Hour 1 Segment 3
According to the World Population Review. That is, I believe, and accepted left wing site. Modern slavery is prevalent in 167 countries. Affecting 46 million people worldwide. The Department of State defines modern slavery in part as the act of recruiting, harboring, transporting, providing or obtaining a person for compelled labor commercial sex acts. The use of force, fraud or coercion. International Labor Office. Describes modern slavery is not just labor is owned by other people, but also forced marriage, state imposed forced labor victims and human trafficking and sexual exploitation. Could include ownership like chattel slavery, government conscription, that is forced labor force, prison labor force, migrant labor, debt bondage, slavery until debts are paid, sexual slavery, forced marriage or child marriage, child labor and forced begging. Top ten countries with the highest prevalence of modern slavery by total number of slaves. Not one of them is a white Christian nation, Mr. Producer, not one of them. India’s number one, almost eight million, China number two, almost four million, North Korea, number three two point six million, Nigeria one point four million, Iran one point three million. Indonesia one point two million. The Congo, one million. Russia, 800,000. The Philippines, 800,000. Afghanistan, 750,000. Now, China is the Earth’s most populous country, it has the second highest number of slaves of more than three point eight million. It does not display this the the same diversity of slavery, other countries with significantly higher slave populations Russia, Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo and so forth, Egypt, Myanmar, Iran, Turkey, Sudan, on a continental and continental level, Asia has not only the highest overall population, but also the highest total number of slaves. But the total number of slaves is only one way to measure the level of slavery in a country, they say. Consider the following list. Top ten country with the highest prevalence of modern slavery by slaves per 1000. In other words, a head count, number one, North Korea, 10 and a half percent, number two. And a Trilla nine point three percent, number three, Burundi, four percent number for the Congo, two point two three percent. Number five, Afghanistan, two point two percent. Number six moratoria two point fourteen percent, number seven, South Sudan, two percent, number eight, Pakistan, one point seven percent. Number nine, Cambodia, one point seven percent. Number 10, Iran, one point six percent. Again, none of them are a majority white Christian country. None of them. None of them. We fought a civil war in this country to end slavery. We fought future battles. To end discrimination and racism. We’ve done a pretty damn good job of it. And now. And our way of critical race theory. And now we have hosts all over MSNBC and CNN, professors tenured. All over our country. We have phony journalists, propagandists. Attached to the Democrat Party and the American Marxist movements of one sort or another. Pushing racism, pushing segregation. Pushing a hostility. The reason I got into all this, remember, is to. Is to point out. That they talk about January 6th as the greatest threat to our democracy. January six is not and was not. Wasn’t the greatest day in American democracy. Or should I say Republicanism, but it certainly wasn’t the worst. In the worst of it is ongoing. When you can have a host like Joy Reid. Go on national television on a platform that has a sister platform to the National Broadcasting Company, which is owned by Comcast, and you can have an individual like that night after night, day after day, going on the air, trashing white people, whatever that means. As racist as of one mind. Poisoning American history, cherry picking American history, ignoring current events, pushing an agenda day in and day out and when you can have her and she’s not alone. And she’s not alone, and when you’re going to have Prof’s day after day, week after week, semester after semester, being subsidized by the very government they claim to detest. Being subsidized. To push a radical Marxist racist agenda. And when you have a Democrat Party. That speaks the same language, that promotes the same ideology. The biggest party in the country. Day in and day out. And you wonder why people are angry and you wonder why people protest. Who are these these are the elements in our society, not Donald Trump. Not the vapid. Often useless Republican Party. Not, quote unquote, conservative media, whatever that is, I guess if you support the country, your conservative media. That’s not what angers people, that’s not what causes people to have their blood boil. That’s not what great is great anger and jealousies and division in this country, the very people who intend to do these things that the American Marxists and their various institutions and their various mouthpieces and platforms, it is they who are creating the very situation. They claim on seriously. In fact, preposterously. To oppose. To oppose. These are people who promote violence and hate. And racism and division. These are people who hate they don’t believe in the American dream, they don’t believe in an alien. All right. Unalienable rights. They burn our books, they pulled down our monuments and our statues, they trashed our founders, they trashed our founding documents. This is who they are. And yet they position themselves. With the big lie, having learned from tyrannies of the past to create the narrative. But the people who love this country, the people who love. The congressional institution, the presidential institution, the judicial institutions. The people who embrace and love the Bill of Rights. It is they who are turned into the perpetrators, not the victims. The perpetrators, not the victims, so the purpose of January six, tomorrow, these same people. Who hate America, who pushed the propaganda, who pushed the lies? To reject the constitution, who reject law enforcement, the rule of law, whether it’s the border, whether it’s our streets. They’ve undermined the cops not just in recent years, but for decades. They now will position themselves, tomorrow’s the Patriots. Who care about the police, who care about our institutions? They’re not fooling anybody. They’re not fooling anybody. It’s the Democrat Party, after all. It’s the media, after all. It’s these radical Marxist organizations all coming together. On January 6th. It’s there May one, if you will. There May Day, he don’t know what that is, Google it. For them, January six is May Day. There May one. We know who they are and we know what they’re doing. Those of you have read my book know for sure those of you listen to this program know for sure. And if you noticed one other thing, ladies and gentlemen. If he noticed the role of corporate America, corporate CEOs and corporate boards. Particularly in the broadcast world, how they’ve tamped down any discussion. About who’s who. When it comes to January six, you see, you and I, we don’t have to apologize, we oppose violence, period. That’s why we support the cops. That’s why we support due process in the Bill of Rights. That’s why we support sentencing guidelines and prisons and putting criminals in prison. If you’re going to break into the Capitol building, are you going to break into the Portland courthouse or you’re going to set fire to a church, Lafayette Park, if you’re going to enter Secret Service around the White House, you’re going to enter your Portland police officers, Minneapolis police officers, NYPD. If you’re going to injure Capitol Hill Police, Metropolitan Police, then you should be prosecuted and go to jail. Not those who are pedestrians, walking, trespassing, quote, unquote. You’re operating without a license. No, those are peaceful protesters. Or being abused and so forth. We oppose all of that. But the media do not they demonstrated it hundreds and hundreds of hours of footage. Hundreds and hundreds of hours of footage of Democrats trashing the cops. Calling them storm troopers in. In other outrageous statements. Hundreds and hundreds of hours of footage of Democrats supporting the riders Black Lives Matter and Antifa Antifa, that’s just an idea. That’s not really an organization. And the failure of the Department of Justice to hunt down those perpetrators in large numbers. Considering the death, the mayhem and the arson that they created. While the celebrated. Celebrated. Tell me who is celebrating the people who broke into the Capitol building? Can you name anybody? There are people who seek the truth and want to lay out the facts, who reject Nancy Pelosi’s efforts. Like Wizard the Oz behind the curtain. But more evil and uglier than that. To orchestrate events for January six and is it an interesting. How she covers up her own role. Isn’t it interesting? That if you believe that that building. Well, illegally penetrated by violent people, don’t you want to know how it happened? And yet the how. Apparently is of no interest to the media, the House apparently of no interest to the Pelosi Stalinist Politburo. The how is of no interest, period. Because if he get to the house. You get the Pelosi. I’ll be right back.
Hour 1 Segment 4
You know, ladies and gentlemen, it’s interesting. They’re very welcoming country. And so many a vast number of people in this country, their ancestors or their forefathers came to this country. Well, after slavery, well after the Civil War, that includes Joy Reid’s parents, in fact, Joy Reid’s parents. Both came to the United States from the African continent. I believe that’s true. But we can check that you can look it up. The point is. That they were not born in the United States. They came to the United States voluntarily, wherever they came from. Joyride goes on and on about the history of this country. She’s become quite successful. She went to Harvard. She has her own television show. I don’t know exactly what Joy Reid and her family has contributed to this nation, and yes, I will say that many of us have family members who went off to World War, to the Korean War, the Vietnam War or other wars. Put their lives on the line. People will say, well, what about modern immigrants, I have no problem with modern immigrants who love this country, who don’t try to tear it down, who don’t join, is a mouthpiece of a movement that seeks to undermine its very existence and then starts attacking, quote, unquote, white people. Any more than people should attack, quote, unquote, black people? Racism is racism. It is a poison, it’s a cancer. And Joy Reid is poisonous and cancerous. She just is and she’s just one example. Just one, there are others. Many others now. I understand the things that I say will upset the very people or the enemy of this country, the very people who don’t embrace Americanism, the very people who embrace this American Marxism. I understand that I will upset people in the media who are basically Democrat thugs who are absolutely disingenuous and dishonest about their phony professions. I understand that. But I don’t care. We all have one life to live on this earth. One life. We do what we can to preserve the greatest nation on the face of the earth. For own flesh and blood, our families, our children, our grandchildren and children, yet born for our fellow citizens. We share. The vast majority of us, the same principles. The same desires, the same needs. We’re all human beings, regardless of our ancestry, regardless of our race, our faith and all the rest of it. And yet there are people who are evil and there have been evil people throughout humankind who seek to do very nasty, unconscionable things to the body politic. And that’s why we’re up against and that’s what I intend to stand against until the day I die. I’ll be right back.
100.) STEADFAST CLASH
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101.) THE GELLER REPORT
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102.) CNS
103.) RELIABLE NEWS
104.) INDEPENDENT SENTINEL
105.) DC CLOTHESLINE
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106.) ARTICLE V LEGISLATORS’ CAUCUS
107.) BECKER NEWS
108.) SONS OF LIBERTY
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109.) STARS & STRIPES
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110.) RIGHT & FREE
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Bravo to podcast star Joe Rogan for encouraging his millions of followers on biased Twitter to join him on Gettr, an alternate social media network, in…
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Conservatives will love what state is poised to get it instead.
The story was good, until the very end.
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111.) UNITED VOICE
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112.) THE DAILY SHAPIRO
113.) INSURGENT CONSERVATIVES
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If nothing else, the past two years have demonstrated with blazing clarity how the ruling elites live by one set of rules and impose an entirely separate set…
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‘There’s no place in our beautiful game for you!’ James said to the broadcaster.
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Why would Ted Cruz peddle the same talking points as the left?
Federal prosecutors have asked the judge to launch an investigation.
Insurgent Conservatives
PO Box 8161 Greenwood, IN 46142
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114.) WAKING TIMES
115.) UNCOVER DC
116.) DC DIRTY LAUNDRY
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