Pfizer seeks emergency authorization for its vaccine . . . Pfizer and its German partner company BioNtech will apply for emergency authorization for their COVID-19 vaccine on Friday, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said Thursday. The application would come just two days after the companies announced that final efficacy data on their vaccine candidate showed it to be 95 percent effective. The Hill

 

Fauci insists vaccines are safe . . . Dr. Anthony Fauci assured the public on Thursday that a coronavirus vaccine would be safe and effective and called for an end to suggestions that the development was rushed for political purposes. “The process of the speed did not compromise at all safety, nor did it compromise scientific integrity,” Fauci said Thursday at the first White House coronavirus task force briefing in months. New York Post

 

Newsom orders month-long curfew . . . California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday announced a one-month curfew to combat the rising spread of COVID-19. Newsom tweeted that the curfew would go into effect Saturday beginning at 10 p.m. and last for the next month. Gatherings and nonessential work will be prohibited from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. in purple-tier counties. The Hill

 

Churches battle shutdowns . . . In some states, such as California and New York, where the restrictions have been tight since mid-March, church and state are locked in a now monthslong battle over the exercise of faith. The pandemic’s recent surge is only exacerbating the situation: The Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn and two New York Orthodox Jewish synagogues in the last week appealed to the Supreme Court. Their appeals, requests for temporary injunctions from the court, argue that government officials specifically target churches by imposing stricter rules on them than on businesses or outdoor protests. Washington Examiner

 

Biden denies he will force national shutdown . . . President-elect said he would not seek to order a nation-wide even as infections spread nationwide and deaths hit 250,000. 'Everybody asks that question every single time,' Biden said, flashing some annoyance when asked if he would order businesses around the country to close as the pandemic raged. He referenced his own earlier comments on the subject, and said: 'The answer was I would follow the science. I am not going to shutdown the economy, period.' Daily Mail

 

Georgia confirms Biden victory . . . Georgia confirmed Democratic President-elect Joe Biden as the winner of the Nov. 3 election in the state as it completed a hand audit of ballots on Thursday, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said. The audit, launched after unofficial results showed Biden leading Republican President Donald Trump by about 14,000 out of more than 5 million votes cast, ended with Biden winning by 12,284, according to data from Raffensperger’s office. Reuters

 

 

Giuliani claims coordinated plan to carry out voter fraud . . .  President Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani aggressively made the case on Thursday for the Trump campaign's legal challenge of the 2020 election results, alleging in a fiery news conference that there was a "centralized" plan to carry out voter fraud around the country. This is a different approach than the campaign has recently taken in court, where they have primarily focused on the validity of ballots and counts without asserting fraud. Fox News

 

New York state expands Trump investigation to include tax write-offs . . . Two separate New York State fraud investigations into President Trump and his businesses, one criminal and one civil, have expanded to include tax write-offs on millions of dollars in consulting fees, some of which appear to have gone to Ivanka Trump, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The inquiries — a criminal investigation by the Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., and a civil one by the state attorney general, Letitia James — are being conducted independently. New York Times

 

Trump maintains grip on GOP . . . President Trump is maintaining a tight grip on Senate Republicans even as he's frustrated them this week by announcing new policies and firing administration officials.

The president’s troop drawdown in Afghanistan and a staff shakeup are exposing cracks between the two ends of Pennsylvania Avenue, where national security has been a perennial sticking point that encapsulated many of the skirmishes between Trump and his GOP allies in Congress. But Republicans are still sticking close to the president — who they need in their corner for an impending government funding battle and two Senate runoff elections in Georgia. The Hill 

 

House Republicans demand hearing into failure to protect Trump backers at DC march . . . Do Trump supporters’ lives matter?

This is the second time  — the first being after President Trump’s White House speech to the Republican convention — that we’ve seen supporters of the president hounded down like prey in the streets of Washington. According to Fox News: The top Republicans on the House Oversight Committee are demanding Democratic Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney to hold a hearing to examine the violence against supporters of President Trump after the “Million MAGA March” in Washington, D.C. last weekend. White House Dossier

 

Lara Trump may run in 2022 for Senate in North Carolina . . . Lara Trump, the president’s daughter-in-law who emerged during the 2020 presidential campaign as a defender of President Trump’s basest political instincts, is now eyeing a political future of her own in her home state of North Carolina. As Mr. Trump attempts to subvert the election to remain in power, Ms. Trump, three allies said, has been telling associates she is considering a run for Senate in 2022, in what is expected to be a competitive race for the first open Senate seat in a very swingy swing state in a generation. New York Times

 

Trump to meet with Michigan lawmakers . . . President Donald Trump will meet with Republican leaders from Michigan at the White House on Friday as his campaign pursues an increasingly desperate bid to overturn the Nov. 3 election result following a series of courtroom defeats. The Trump campaign’s latest strategy, as described by three people familiar with the plan, is to convince Republican-controlled legislatures in battleground states won by Biden, such as Michigan, to undermine the results. Reuters

 

 

Birthday boy Biden born when FDR was president and Errol Flynn reigned in Hollywood . . . President-elect Joe Biden celebrates his 78th birthday Friday. On Jan. 20, Biden will become the oldest person ever to serve as president. The previous holder of that record, Ronald Reagan, did not turn 78 until after he left office. President Trump would have also turned 78 at the end of a second term. When Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. was born on this day in 1942, World War II raged. Franklin D. Roosevelt was in his third term as president, with one more still to go. Errol Flynn was a Hollywood heartthrob. Bambi was a brand new film released that year. Big-band leader Glenn Miller was the top recording artist in the country, with the swing era in full swing, and two years away from his disappearance. Washington Examiner

 

Afghanistan braces for worst as US withdraws troops . . . Even before President Trump’s drawdown of U.S. troops in Afghanistan goes into effect, there are clear signs the national government is losing its grip. Streets empty out at dusk on the edge of the capital, as security forces gird for a rising wave of hit-and-run assassinations. Taliban insurgents have stuck letters on shop fronts, warning that the Islamic Emirate, as the movement calls itself, will arrest or summarily execute kidnappers, looters and robbers. Wall Street Journal

 

Biden DHS team stocked with amnesty proponents . . .The transition “landing team” presumptive President-elect Joseph R. Biden is deploying to the Department of Homeland Security is a who’s who of past campaigns for an illegal immigrant amnesty. Missing, however, is anyone to represent border security, said Brandon Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council, which represents thousands of Border Patrol line agents. Washington Times

 

Palestinians eagerly await Biden reset . . . It’s been four long years of economic, diplomatic and political setbacks for Palestinian leaders as President Trump has titled heavily toward Israel, shattered precedents undergirding the Palestinian case for statehood and forged ties between Jerusalem and leading Arab states even as the Palestinian cause was ignored. Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh, speaking to a Washington think tank this week, welcomed the hoped-for change in leadership in Washington. Washington Times

 

Trump to announce new rules on drug prices . . . The Trump administration is planning on Friday to roll out two final rules aimed at lowering drug prices—one curbing rebates paid to middlemen in Medicare and another pegging the prices of certain prescription drugs in the U.S. to their prices in other developed countries, according to a person familiar with the planning. Wall Street Journal

 

Scientists biologically reverse human aging . . . Scientists at Tel Aviv University found a way to biologically reverse aging at the cellular level. Israeli scientists gave humans oxygen therapy in a pressurized chamber to increase telomere length and eliminate senescent cells. Telomeres – protective caps at the ends of chromosomes– shorten as humans age, which damages DNA and prevents cell regeneration. Senescent cells – cells that stop dividing but do not die – build up in the body and further prevent regeneration. Daily Caller

 

Sale of Trump DC hotel on hold after bids come in low . . . The Trump Organization has reportedly pressed pause on plans to sell the Trump International Hotel Washington DC because no one has shown interest in paying anywhere near the $500million asking price. The Trump Organization, which is owned by President Donald Trump and run by his children, hired top real estate firm Jones Lang LaSalle in October 2019 to find potential buyers for the 260-room hotel inside a historic post office. Daily Mail

 

Mnuchin to allow Fed ledning programs to expire . . . Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he would allow several emergency Federal Reserve lending programs to expire, opening a divide with the central bank, which had pressed for an extension.

As a result, on Dec. 31 several novel Fed programs that have backed corporate credit and municipal-borrowing markets and that have provided loans to small and midsize businesses and nonprofits during the coronavirus pandemic will end. Wall Street Journal