Cut to the News
Cut through the clutter to today's top news
December 14, 2020
Good morning
Welcome to today's top news.
Leading the News . . .
Hunter and James Biden stonewalling Senate panel . . . Hunter Biden and James Biden have not complied with information requests from the Senate. According to a Saturday press release from the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, several requests dating
back to September 23 for interviews and records have been ignored by President-elect Joe Biden’s son, his brother, and other associates. The press release from Republican Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson, who serves as the committee chairman, indicated that Hunter Biden and business associate Devon Archer had ignored an interview request sent September 23.
Letters requesting records went out to both Hunter and James Biden — as well as a number of their associates — on October 21, and requests for interviews with several other associates followed on November 9. Daily Caller
The letter notes that president Trump's family and associates agreed to be interviewed by a number of congressional committees.
Hunter Biden called his Chinese business partner and his dad "officemates" . . . Hunter Biden called his father, President-elect Joe Biden, and his Chinese business partner “office mates” in a Sept. 21, 2017, email to the general manager of his former Washington, D.C. office building. “[P]lease have keys made available for new office mates,” Hunter Biden wrote in the email before listing Joe Biden, his stepmother Jill Biden, his uncle Jim
Biden and Gongwen Dong, who he identified as the “emissary” for the chairman of the now-bankrupt Chinese energy conglomerate CEFC. Daily Caller
My only problem with pursuing all this is that we could end up with Kamala Harris as president.
Vaccine to begin arriving in states Monday morning . . . The first doses of the coronavirus vaccine are on their way to the public. Gen. Gustave Perna, the chief operating officer for the Defense Department’s Operation Warp Speed, announced during a Saturday press conference that 145 sites across the country will receive the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine on Monday morning. "Make no mistake. Distribution has begun," Perna
said. "Right now, boxes are being packed and loaded with vaccine with emphasis on quality control." Perna added that 425 sites will receive doses on Tuesday, and another 66 will receive them on Wednesday. Washington Examiner
Trump nixes plan to quickly vaccinate White House staff . . . U.S. President Donald Trump suggested late Sunday that senior White House officials would wait longer for COVID-19 vaccines hours after media outlets reported senior officials were to receive doses within 10 days. Late Sunday night, Trump said on Twitter he had asked for an “adjustment” to be made to the plans to vaccinate White House officials. “People working in the White House should
receive the vaccine somewhat later in the program, unless specifically necessary,” Trump wrote, adding: “I am not scheduled to take the vaccine, but look forward to doing so at the appropriate time.” Reuters
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Electoral College to vote today . . . Electors will gather in state capitols across the country on Monday to formally vote for Joe Biden as the next U.S. president, effectively ending President Donald Trump’s frenzied but failing attempt to overturn his loss in the Nov. 3 election. The state-by-state votes, traditionally an afterthought, have taken on outsized significance this year in light of Trump’s unprecedented
assault on the nation’s democratic process. Pushing false claims of widespread fraud, Trump has pressured state officials to throw the election results out and declare him the winner. Reuters
Flynn says he was target of "political persecution" . . . Former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn said Sunday that he was the target of “political persecution” when he was interviewed by the FBI and eventually charged with lying to its agents. “My persecution was a political persecution and that’s really clear and the evidence has come out in spades,” Flynn told Maria Bartiromo, host of Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures.” “Basically
it was a get Flynn to get [President Donald] Trump direction.” Daily Caller
Former Andrew Cuomo aide alleges sexual harassment . . . A former aide to Gov. Cuomo now running for Manhattan borough president alleged Sunday morning on Twitter that her ex-boss “sexually harassed” her for her “looks” — but refused to share any more information. “Yes, @NYGovCuomo sexually harassed me for years. Many saw it, and watched,” wrote Lindsey Boylan on the platform. “I could never anticipate what to expect: would I be
grilled on my work (which was very good) or harassed about my looks. Or would it be both in the same conversation? This was the way for years.” A spokeswoman for Cuomo responded Sunday that, “There is simply no truth to these claims.” New York Post
Could prevent him from being selected attorney general.
Sarah Palin returns to campaign trail to stump for Georgia Republicans . . . Former Alaska governor and 2008 Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin has rejoined the GOP campaign trail and urged supporters in Georgia to 'crush' the vote for Sen David Perdue and Sen Kelly Loeffler. 'Georgia, we need you to not just show up January 5, not just to win, but to crush it,' Palin told a crowd of supporters in
Marietta, Georgia, on Friday as part of the Save America Tour. Daily Mail
Running for president in 2024?
Biden Cabinet picks help Kamala . . . Joe Biden hasn’t picked any of the nearly two dozen Democrats who ran against him to serve in his administration — and that bodes quite well for the former rival he did elevate as his No. 2, Kamala Harris. Biden’s decision to forgo a Cabinet of ambitious pols in favor of a group heavy on seasoned loyalists and technocrats contrasts with Donald Trump and Barack Obama's appointment of next-generation
officials to top posts. And it could deny a springboard to potential Harris competitors in 2024 if Biden decides to retire after one term rather than running for reelection in his 80s. Politico
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Russians hack Treasury and Commerce . . . Hackers believed to be working for Russia have been monitoring internal email traffic at the U.S. Treasury and Commerce departments, according to people familiar with the matter, adding they feared the hacks uncovered so far may be the tip of the iceberg. The hack is so serious it led to a National Security Council meeting at the White House on Saturday, said one of the people familiar
with the matter. Reuters
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Chinese influence in Latin America grows . . . Beijing has tightened its grip over vast swathes of the resource-rich region once seen as the United States’ political backyard. A Reuters investigation, including interviews with current and former officials and advisers, and an analysis of trade data, found that under Trump, China has left the United States trailing in terms of power and influence across most of Latin
America. That poses a challenge for Biden, who has pledged to restore Washington’s role as a global leader after years of Trump’s “America First” policies, and has said that slipping U.S. influence in Latin American is a threat to national security. Reuters
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Queens business owners haunted by Amazon loss . . . In Long Island City, it’s the scar that won’t heal. Almost two years after Amazon pulled out from a proposal to build a massive headquarters along the Queens waterfront, the site is a vacant eyesore — and, to many locals, the squandered economic opportunity is even more painful amid the coronavirus pandemic. “The site just sits there empty. It’s terrible,” said Donna
Drimer, owner of the Matted LIC art gallery and gift store. “We’re in the middle of a pandemic. People say, ‘If we only had Amazon.’ We got nothing.” New York Post
Thank you, AOC.
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Seattle city council council considers "poverty defense" for crimes . . . Seattle City Council is considering a new criminal code regulation that would see it become the first municipality in the US to excuse misdemeanor crimes if they can be linked to poverty, addiction, or mental health disorders. Under the defense, an accused suspect could possibly be absolved of a crime – such as theft, assault, or
trespassing – if they committed the offense to meet a basic need to survive. Daily Mail
Cleveland Indians dropping name . . . Following in the path of the Washington Football Team, Cleveland has decided to remove its nickname many consider racist and insensitive. An official announcement could come as soon as this week. The 105-year-old “Indians” moniker has for decades drawn ire from Native American groups, and those frustrations became more prevalent with the U.S. in the midst of a reckoning on racism and social injustice following
police shootings involving unarmed black men and women. New York Post
Police kill gunman outside NYC cathedral . . . A video posted to Facebook captured the deadly confrontation between police and an apparently suicidal, double-pistol waving gunman outside the famed Cathedral of St. John the Divine on Sunday afternoon. The shocking, nearly four-and-a-half minute video shows the man standing at the top of the church’s steps, repeatedly bellowing, “Kill me! Kill me! Kill me!” as gunshots crack through the air like
thunder. The shooter got to the top of the church’s steps on Amsterdam Ave. at W. 112th St. at about 3:45 p.m., just after the cathedral’s choir finished an outdoor Christmas carol performance that attracted hundreds of people. A gun in each hand, the man started blasting into the air as remaining members of the audience fled. Three police officers opened fire on the man, fatally striking him in the head. New York Daily News
Spy thriller author John le Carré dead at 89 . . . John le Carré, whose exquisitely nuanced, intricately plotted Cold War thrillers elevated the spy novel to high art by presenting both Western and Soviet spies as morally compromised cogs in a rotten system full of treachery, betrayal and personal tragedy, died on Saturday in Cornwall, England. He was 89. The cause was pneumonia, his publisher, Penguin Random House, said on Sunday. Before Mr.
le Carré published his best-selling 1963 novel “The Spy Who Came in From the Cold,” which Graham Greene called “the best spy story I have ever read,” the fictional model for the modern British spy was Ian Fleming’s James Bond — suave, urbane, devoted to queen and country. Mr. Le Carré upended that notion with books that portrayed British intelligence operations as cesspools of ambiguity in which right and wrong are too close to call. New York Times
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Santa arrests shoplifters . . . A pair of undercover police officers dressed as Santa Claus and an elf made multiple arrests at a retail giant in California on Saturday, police said. The operation, dubbed “holiday enforcement,” led to numerous apprehensions, including a woman hauling stolen merchandise, a homeless man who is said to be a serial thief and a 55-year-old who purportedly stole around $1,000 in Lego products. The
Christmas-clad authorities also spotted three men suspected of stealing a Honda CR-V in the parking lot, the local outlet reported. Video shows the officer dressed as an elf holding a man at gunpoint, while the officer dressed in full St. Nick attire tackles a suspect. A bystander yells “Get him, Santa!” as the officer tackles the man to the ground. Daily Caller
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Keith
Keith Koffler
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