NEW … NATASHA BERTRAND interviews JAKE SULLVAN: "The inexorable rise of Jake Sullivan": "Reflecting on his time in the Obama White House, Sullivan said he felt more could have been done there, too, to put the average American on the agenda in the Situation Room on a regular basis. And he paused for a long moment when asked how the rise of Trump and Trumpism had affected his worldview, attuning him more, for example, to the populist tide at home that he may have missed while focusing on international nuclear negotiations, peace deals and trade treaties. "'When you spend years in government working on the Iran deal, or working on the Asia-Pacific rebalance, or working on issues related to the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, it's not that you completely lose sight of what's happening on the home front -- but your focus is more on other things,' Sullivan said. 'I do think that the 2016 campaign had an impact on my thinking, but it wasn't all about Trump. It was about the vigorous debate the Democrats had in the primary. It was about a recognition, as I left national security and entered a domestic political conversation, about how profoundly such a large segment of our country felt their government wasn't working for them.' … "So what will a Sullivan-led National Security Council look like? It won't be too big or micromanaging, Sullivan insists — criticisms that dogged the Obama NSC, which stood accused of stepping on the prerogatives of Cabinet agencies, be it by setting troop levels or insisting on signing off on individual drone strikes. 'I see my job as fundamentally about supporting and lifting up the work of the broader national security team in service of the president-elect's mission and strategy,' he said. 'My goal is to have a process that is able to give sufficient direction, but then empower the departments and agencies to be the tip of the spear to carry that out.'" NYT'S MIKE SHEAR and JONATHAN MARTIN anchored a report with 14 contributors, laying out all of the candidates for the Cabinet. NYT -- A.G.: "Sally Q. Yates … had long been considered the front-runner. Mr. Biden is close to her and has told friends that he could imagine her as the nation's top law enforcement official. But some advisers fear that Republicans would block her nomination because of her refusal to defend Mr. Trump's first travel ban and her role in the early stages of the investigations into his campaign and associates. "Mr. Biden could instead pick Lisa Monaco, the former homeland security adviser for President Barack Obama who was a finalist in 2013 to be F.B.I. director. … But both women are up against Deval Patrick, the former Massachusetts governor … Xavier Becerra, the attorney general of California, is also under consideration for attorney general." -- SECDEF: "One candidate for the job, according to people familiar with Mr. Biden's deliberations, is Michèle A. Flournoy, a senior defense official for President Bill Clinton and Mr. Obama. But her lock on the job may have slipped in recent days as some progressive groups have attacked her work at consulting firms that have represented military contractors and foreign governments. … "If Mr. Biden does not choose Ms. Flournoy, Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, a former deputy energy secretary and National Security Council member, and Lloyd J. Austin III, a retired Army general and head of the U.S. Central Command, are possibilities, people close [to the] process said. The Biden team could also tap Jeh C. Johnson, who served as … the Pentagon's top lawyer before becoming secretary of homeland security under Mr. Obama." -- CIA: "Michael J. Morell, a former acting C.I.A. director and one of the two leading candidates to be nominated to that position, has drawn the ire of liberals for his outspoken defense of the C.I.A.'s interrogation program. … Thomas E. Donilon, a former national security adviser in the Obama administration, is also a leading possibility to take over the C.I.A. … Others under consideration are Sue Gordon, a former principal deputy director of national intelligence who was pushed out by Mr. Trump; Vincent R. Stewart, a retired lieutenant general who led the Defense Intelligence Agency; and Representative Elissa Slotkin, Democrat of Michigan, a former C.I.A. analyst and White House national security aide." -- NEC: "Mr. Biden could pick Roger W. Ferguson Jr., an economist who was vice chair of the Federal Reserve and was under serious consideration for the Treasury job, to lead the National Economic Council or a new board overseeing the recovery from the recession. Picking Mr. Ferguson, who is Black, to lead the council would help Mr. Biden keep a promise to make his administration look like the rest of America. Other names under consideration for the position are white men, including Bruce Reed, a former chief of staff to Mr. Biden, and Austan Goolsbee, an economist who was chairman of Mr. Obama's Council of Economic Advisers. Gene Sperling, a veteran economic adviser dating to the Clinton administration, is another possibility, as is Brian Deese, who was deputy director of the National Economic Council under Mr. Obama." -- AGRICULTURE: "To lead the Agriculture Department, Representative James E. Clyburn of South Carolina, the highest-ranking Black member of Congress, is pushing for Representative Marcia L. Fudge, an African-American Democrat from Ohio. Mr. Clyburn, an early and important backer of Mr. Biden, has said the department should be focused more on hunger. But traditionalists eager to keep a voice from rural America in the post are advocating Heidi Heitkamp, a former senator from North Dakota, or Tom Vilsack, the former Iowa governor who served as agriculture secretary for Mr. Obama." -- COVID CZAR: "To coordinate the response to the pandemic, Jeffrey D. Zients, who was director of the National Economic Council under Mr. Obama, could become Mr. Biden's 'Covid czar.' That job could also go to Vivek H. Murthy, the former surgeon general who helps lead Mr. Biden's transition panel on the virus." -- EPA: "Mary D. Nichols, California's climate and clean air regulator, is seen as the top candidate to lead the Environmental Protection Agency." -- INTERIOR: "[T]here is a growing campaign to persuade Mr. Biden to name a Native American as interior secretary. Among the names he is considering: Representative Deb Haaland, Democrat of New Mexico and a rising star in Democratic politics; and Michael Connor, the former deputy interior secretary in the Obama administration. Steve Bullock, the governor of Montana, is also a candidate." -- ENERGY: "The possibility that Ernest J. Moniz, Mr. Obama's energy secretary, could reprise his role troubles environmental groups who believe Mr. Moniz did not do enough to steer the country away from fossil fuels. Mr. Biden could also turn to Arun Majumdar, who runs the Precourt Institute for Energy at Stanford." -- TRANSPORTATION: "Rahm Emanuel, Mr. Obama's former chief of staff and the former mayor of Chicago, is a candidate to run the Transportation Department, but is disliked by some liberals for how he handled police issues as mayor. Eric M. Garcetti, the mayor of Los Angeles, is another top candidate." -- HUD: "Representative Karen Bass, Democrat of California, Alvin Brown, the former mayor of Jacksonville, Fla., and Keisha Lance Bottoms, the mayor of Atlanta, are being discussed to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham of New Mexico is interested in becoming secretary of health and human services, and would be another Latino in the cabinet." NAHAL TOOSI: "Are you on the list? Biden's democracy summit spurs anxieties — and skepticism": "President-elect Joe Biden has promised to host a gathering of the world's democracies next year, hoping to show that a post-Donald Trump America will be committed to democracy abroad and at home. Biden's pledge, though, has left many foreign officials pondering a thorny question: Will their country be invited? "It's of special concern for nations such as Turkey, Hungary, Poland and the Philippines — all U.S. allies or partners with leaders who have taken notable steps away from democracy. Even a country like India, which boasts of being the world's most populous democracy, may not make the cut given recent anti-democratic trends there. Then there's the question of how weighted the event will be toward Western countries. Looming over it all will be the memory of Trump, who has yet to concede the Nov. 3 election and spent four years raising questions about the strength of America's own democratic system." POLITICAL MARKET SHORTING DEMS … -- DAVID SIDERS in Los Angeles: "GOP finds silver lining in Trump's landslide California loss": "Republicans are poised to win as many as four of the seven House seats that Democrats flipped from GOP control in 2018. Voters sunk business tax and rent control measures, as well as a bid to reinstate affirmative action. And Republicans reclaimed their status as the second biggest party in terms of voter registration after falling embarrassingly behind 'no party preference' voters in 2018." -- NYT'S TRIP GABRIEL in Wexford, Pa.: "How Democrats Suffered Crushing Down-Ballot Losses Across America" THE DAILY BEAST'S ASAWIN SUEBSAENG: "Trump's Already Gaming Out a 2024 Run—Including an Event During Biden's Inauguration" DAN GOLDBERG and BRIANNA EHLEY: "Biden's other health crisis: A resurgent drug epidemic" HOW WE'LL GET OVER COVID: "A shot. A wait. Another shot: Two-dose coronavirus vaccine regimens will make it harder to inoculate America," by WaPo's Francis Stead Sellers: "[F]or the current coronavirus vaccines, which require two injections spaced either three or four weeks apart, she anticipates clinicians having to make many more than two visits to facilities. Will health-care workers be considered a high-priority group and thus scheduled for vaccination sooner than at-risk residents? How should shift workers be accommodated? And what about the many people who move in or out of facilities in the window between shots?" THEY HAVE RECEIPTS … NYT, A17: "McKinsey Proposed Paying Pharmacy Companies Rebates for OxyContin Overdoses," by Walt Bogdanich and Michael Forsythe: "When Purdue Pharma agreed last month to plead guilty to criminal charges involving OxyContin, the Justice Department noted the role an unidentified consulting company had played in driving sales of the addictive painkiller even as public outrage grew over widespread overdoses. "Documents released last week in a federal bankruptcy court in New York show that the adviser was McKinsey & Company, the world's most prestigious consulting firm. The 160 pages include emails and slides revealing new details about McKinsey's advice to the Sackler family, Purdue's billionaire owners, and the firm's now notorious plan to 'turbocharge' OxyContin sales at a time when opioid abuse had already killed hundreds of thousands of Americans." | 
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