President-elect Biden  For everyone who ever wished Election Day was on a Saturday instead of a Tuesday, well, you sort of got your wish this year. Saturday morning, CNN was the first to make the call, projecting that Joe Biden will become the 46th president of the United States. CNN’s Stephen Collinson and Maeve Reston have highlights from Biden and Harris’s victory speeches Saturday night. Trump, who was on the golf course when the networks made the call, tweeted, “I WON THIS ELECTION, BY A LOT!” Have to say, I was expecting “alot,” so maybe this is the moment he became president.
As Eric Bradner reports at CNN, former President George W. Bush issued a statement congratulating Biden, saying the election was “fundamentally fair” and “its outcome is clear.” From Philip Rucker, Dan Balz, Robert Costa and Amy B Wang, Voices from the fight: An oral history of the four-year movement to defeat Donald Trump. Terri Rupar says, “This is an incredible look back at the past four years and the people who stood up or rose up.” And yes, it’s “Quite a lot to scroll through in one sitting,” as Eliza Berkon says, but we’re all pretty skilled at that these days.  Not only was it a big milestone at the top of the ticket — Trump is the first incumbent to lose since 1992 — history has been made several times over with Kamala Harris as the Vice President. At Politico, Teresa Wiltz writes about What Kamala Harris Faces as a ‘First.’
And as Teo Armus writes at The Washington Post, Dogs are returning to the White House: Biden’s German shepherds, including the first shelter pup. “Of course @teoarmus finds an expert at the Presidential Pet Museum, because apparently this place exists,” tweets Jaclyn Peiser. Lit match, dry tinder  You knew he wouldn’t go quietly, and you were right. As Arthur Goldstein points out, “Trump would rather blow up the country, the world, than admit defeat.” Scoop from Alayna Treene of Axios takes us Inside Trump's legal warfare, and David Larter puts it this way: “It will be like a stimulus package for lawyers.” But also, “Lit match, dry tinder,” Kim Masters says, of the details in that story.
Axios’ Mike Allen has some scoop on how Trump allies are bracing for a 30-day legal war as the Senate hangs in the balance. “GOP leaders and Trump allies say his efforts to overturn the election results could last another month, Axios reports. And behold this amazing sentence: ‘Most top Republicans have followed Trump’s orders not to accept the Biden victory,’” tweets Greg Sargent. Meanwhile, Daniel Dale says, “Some of the conspiracy lies being promoted by famous Trump allies right now are very confusing, so I appreciated this explainer from @willsommer on the origins of the one about the vote-stealing supercomputer.” (And if Daniel Dale is confused, what hope is there for any of us, really.) The Daily Beast’s Will Sommer writes about the Infamous ‘Hoax’ Artist Behind Trumpworld’s New Voter Fraud Claim. “From Bush’s war on terror to Arpaio’s war on immigrants to Trump's war on the vote, the same shady guy keeps showing up and selling impossible software systems that supposedly reveal huge secrets like the current ‘Coup 5.0.’ A WILD read from @willsommer,” tweets Harry Siegel. The transition Lisa Rein, Jonathan O'Connell and Josh Dawsey of The Washington Post report that A little-known Trump appointee is in charge of handing transition resources to Biden — and she isn’t budging. GSA Administrator Emily Murphy hasn’t signed the letter authorizing the Biden transition. The transition is underway, though, and as Mike Memoli reports at NBC News, transition veterans aim to give President-elect Biden a quick start to governing. The team has already identified 4,300 prospective appointees for the 4,000 federal jobs it must ultimately fill, putting a premium on those with responsibility for tackling the Covid-19 pandemic. And there’s no time to wait on Emily Murphy, since A ‘Terrifying’ Covid Surge Will Land in Biden’s Lap, as Sarah Mervosh and Mitch Smith detail at The New York Times. This morning, President-elect Biden announced his coronavirus task force made up of physicians and health experts (imagine that!). Yasmeen Abutaleb of The Washington Post reports that the 13-member task force will work with state and local officials to craft policies as the pandemic enters its worst stretch. Oh, and Kelsey Snell notices, “There are no members of his family on it.” Also at The Post, Matt Viser, Seung Min Kim and Annie Linskey report that Biden plans an immediate flurry of executive orders to reverse Trump policies. Speaking of Covid We weren’t expecting any other stories to be able to upstage this weekend’s news, but this comes pretty close. This morning, Pfizer announced that its early data shows its coronavirus vaccine is more than 90% effective.  As Katie Thomas, David Gelles and Carl Zimmer report at The New York Times, the company plans to ask the FDA for emergency authorization of the two-dose vaccine later this month. By the end of the year it will have manufactured enough doses to immunize 15 to 20 million people. Unlike the other vaccine front-runners, Pfizer did not take any federal money to help pay for research and development.
Matthew Herper has more details at Stat News, Covid-19 vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech is strongly effective, data show. He spoke with Ashish Jha, the dean of the School of Public Health at Brown University, who cautioned that it is always difficult to evaluate science via press release and that researchers will need to see the full results. As Jonathan Sher says, “This is Press Release science but many are hopeful.” Point Counterpoint Back to politics, here’s a story that got some attention over the weekend. Astead Herndon of The New York Times interviewed Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Biden’s Win, House Losses, and What’s Next for the Left. As Sopan Deb puts it, “Ocasio-Cortez goes to town in this interview with @AsteadWesley. It’s absolutely remarkable.” “Hot damn, AOC spits so much fire in this interview,” adds David Roberts. And then, “Conor Lamb, the PA Dem name dropped by AOC in our interview, had...some thoughts this AM. A moderate's retort to House results, lessons from Biden's win, if The Squad is making it harder for Dems to keep a majority, and more The Dem detente is over.” So here’s Herndon’s interview with Conor Lamb, House Moderate, on Biden’s Win,‘the Squad’ and the Future of the Democratic Party. David Halbfinger shares, “I could read another one of these incisive, pungent @AsteadWesley interviews every day of the year.” Elsewhere, Elizabeth Findell of The Wall Street Journal takes a look at How Democrats Lost So Many South Texas Latinos—the Economy. “Texas shifting blue from demographic shifts is perpetually 4 years away. Looks like it'll stay that way,” tweets Ari N. Schulman. Philadelphia freedom  “Three days of peace, love and music,” Jim MacMillan tweets, which sounds familiar, but he’s referring to what unfolded in Philadelphia over the past week. New from Anna Orso of The Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia was told to brace for mass unrest. Instead, the city danced. That was no accident. “In line for the polls and outside the ballot-counting center, Philadelphians danced. It seemed impromptu. It wasn't really. The spread of the joy was organic, but it was also carefully facilitated by a coalition of progressive orgs. How it happened,” she tweets.
Meanwhile, “In Philadelphia, city authorities are receiving death threats - just for counting votes. It's deranged.” Robin Whitlock links Bill Whitaker’s “60 Minutes” interview on CBS with Al Schmidt, one of three commissioners who run elections in Philadelphia and the lone Republican: “It is not cheating, it is democracy”: A first-hand look at ballot counting in Pennsylvania. Trump and the media In her Washington Post column, Margaret Sullivan writes that The media never fully learned how to cover Trump. But they still might have saved democracy. On Twitter, she notes, “A column in which I characterize certain media offerings as ‘mendacious bilge.’” And about his latest New York Times column, Ben Smith says “I wrote about a dominant figure at the end of an era.” Check out The Trump Presidency Is Ending. So Is Maggie Haberman’s Wild Ride. What is: irreplaceable?  Katharine Q. Seelye has the New York Times obit for Alex Trebek, the longtime ‘Jeopardy!’ host, who died yesterday at 80. “RIP to the best game show host ever. What is 2020 sucks for $2000, Alex,” tweets Phil Latzman. Dave Levitan points out that the “NYT's short/preliminary Trebek obit includes an amazing stat: In the decades he hosted Jeopardy, more than FOUR HUNDRED other game shows came and went on American television.”
Seelye notes that the show’s producers said episodes of the show he hosted would air through Dec. 25. They haven’t made plans for a replacement. Team Trump’s ludicrous last stand Alright, you’ve been waiting patiently for it, and we won’t make you wait any longer. It’s time for a visit to the Four Seasons Totally Not the Luxury Hotel. As Anthony Pignataro says, “I intend to read every word printed about the Four Seasons Total Landscaping press conference.” These stories are the reason why Mark Berman has a “new rule, if your headline includes the words ‘Four Seasons Total Landscaping’ I am gonna click, I am gonna read, I am gonna hook myself up to an IV of it and stare into the horizon for a while,”  First up, it’s Dan Zak and Karen Heller of The Washington Post with It began on a gold escalator. It may have ended at Four Seasons Total Landscaping. “A plot too ludicrous for Veep, and every word of it is true,” notes Jose A. Del Real. Elahe Izadi says, “This story was everything I hoped it would be and more. Down to the headline.” And as Carrie Johnson suggests, “Put this one in a time capsule, folks.”
“I will be laughing about this until the end of time,” tweets Angela Haupt, and Jessica Goldstein adds, “I will be following this story for the rest of my life!!!”  On that note, No, not that Four Seasons. How Team Trump’s news conference ended up at a Northeast Philly landscaping firm. That’s from Jeremy Roebuck, Maddie Hanna and Oona Goodin-Smith of The Philadelphia Inquirer, and as Eli Clifton says, “This is how you write a lede.” “Seriously y’all, none of this is real, it's just a comedy show in my dreams. Ready to wake up tho,” Napp Nazworth admits.
And here’s one more, from Richard Hall of the Independent: I saw Donald Trump’s presidency come crashing down at Four Seasons Total Landscaping. Yet another superb lede and a “Great read from @_RichardHall on Team Trump’s ludicrous last stand,” as Mark MacKinnon says. “The opening par of this promises so much and then it just delivers over and over again,” tweets Joe Evans. Just what we needed. | 
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