| |
| |
| |
| Presented By UnitedHealth Group |
| |
| Axios AM |
| By Mike Allen ·Dec 12, 2020 |
| 🏈 Happy Saturday! Today's 121st Army-Navy game, with President Trump attending, is being played for the first time in 77 years at West Point's venerable Michie Stadium. - Attendance limits on outdoor events in Pennsylvania caused the game to move from the traditional neutral site in Philly. And it was the Black Knights' turn to be home team. (AP)
Today's Smart Brevity™ count: 1,154 words ... 4½ minutes |
| |
| |
| 1 big thing ... Trump's final days: Sweepstakes on who'll get fired |
| President Trump was enraged by a Wall Street Journal scoop that Attorney General Bill Barr worked "for months" during the campaign to conceal the federal investigation of Hunter Biden, Jonathan Swan reports. - The president now is re-exploring options for replacing Barr, and this morning tweeted this rebuke: "Why didn't Bill Barr reveal the truth to the public, before the Election, about Hunter Biden[?]"
- A senior White House official said: "It's going to be the longest month."
Why it matters: Barr was viewed as a staunch Trump loyalist — and heavily criticized for the way he pre-spun the Mueller report in the president's favor. But like many top Trump officials, even he has failed to go far enough to satisfy Trump's desires. - For many top officials in the government, it's a white-knuckle ride to Jan. 20 — with Trump making ever more outlandish demands.
The big picture: Life inside the White House since the election has been a daily sweepstakes on who'll get fired first — or at all: Barr, FDA commissioner Steve Hahn or CIA Director Gina Haspel. - Asked on Twitter about the bookies' line on possible firings by Trump, Swan replied: "Depends on the day / hour and whatever latest piece of information the president has consumed."
Behind the scenes: Trump was privately venting about Barr yesterday with confidants, including Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), sources familiar with the discussions tell Swan. - A congressional source familiar with the discussions said it's unclear whether the president will follow through.
The intrigue: The fact that the Journal article was single-sourced made people close to the president suspect, despite not knowing, that it came directly from Barr — or from a sanctioned representative as a way to burnish his reputation with legal peers post-Trump. - To be clear, these sources have no evidence of how The Journal got the story. But that perception is part of what's driving West Wing anger.
Swan reports that Barr has discussed with friends the idea of leaving before the end of Trump's term. - The N.Y. Times reported Sunday that Barr might announce his departure before the end of the year. As of Thursday, The Times later reported, Barr planned to stay.
A Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment. |
    |
| |
| |
| 2. The death spiral of public life |
 |
|
| Illustration: Annelise Capossela/Axios |
| |
| The pandemic could prove devastating to institutions and services that we all share, Axios Future author Bryan Walsh writes: - Public schools across the country have seen a drastic drop in enrollment, in part because parents frustrated by COVID-closed classrooms and poor remote learning have turned to private schools, which have remained open at higher rates than their public counterparts. Some families are even homeschooling.
- Public transit systems have been crippled by COVID-19, as ridership plummets because of fear of infection and a shift to remote work.
The office — that private space in public where many of us used to gather on a daily basis — is mortally threatened. Nearly 14% of office space in Midtown Manhattan is vacant, the highest rate since the depths of the 2009 recession. - A recent McKinsey report found three to four times more people could end up working remotely than before the pandemic.
Keep reading. |
| |
| |
| |
| 3. 🚨 NEW: Vaccine shipments to arrive Monday |
 |
|
| Spotted at a rehearsal for the administration of Pfizer's COVID vaccine at Indiana University Health in Indianapolis yesterday. Photo: Bryan Woolston/Reuters |
| |
| Bulletin ... WASHINGTON (AP) — US government expects shipments of the nation's first COVID-19 vaccine to start arriving in states Monday morning. The FDA issued an emergency use authorization for Pfizer-BioNTech's coronavirus vaccine last night, a historic milestone in the fight against COVID. What to watch: An HHS official told Axios that Operation Warp Speed is working with governors to ensure that vaccine distribution begins "within 24 hours" of the FDA's authorization. - 636 locations equipped with ultra-cold storage capacity across all 50 states will receive about 2.9 million doses in the initial Pfizer shipment, according to Operation Warp Speed officials.
Go deeper. |
| |
| |
| |
| A message from UnitedHealth Group |
| Helping people afford prescription drugs |
| |
 |
| |
Optum is helping people afford prescription drugs by estimating cost and approval information when a medication is being prescribed:- 400,000 providers use the tool
- 9 million people have benefited
- People save $225 per prescription
Learn about OptumRx's PreCheck MyScript. |
| |
| |
| 4. Trump loses what he called "the big one" |
 |
|
| The White House at dusk on Monday. The flag is at half-staff for Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day. Photo: Patrick Semansky/AP |
| |
| "Briskly rejecting a long-shot but high-stakes case, the U.S. Supreme Court ... tossed out the Texas lawsuit that had become a vehicle for Republicans across the country to contest President-elect Joe Biden's victory," The Texas Tribune writes. - Why it matters: The Electoral College meets Monday to finalize the result.
How it's playing ... How it came down ... U.S. Supreme Court " Miscellaneous Orders" |
| |
| |
| |
| 5. Still fighting an election, 39 days on |
| Photo: Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images Above: Members of the Proud Boys clash last night with Black Lives Matter protesters near Black Lives Matter Plaza in D.C., ahead of an election protest today by Trump supporters. Below: Roger Stone greets Trump supporters outside his D.C. hotel last night. Photo: Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images |
| |
| |
| |
| 6. Starting Monday, only takeout and outdoor dining in one of the world's cuisine capitals |
| The decision by Gov. Andrew Cuomo to close indoor dining in New York City on Monday "is a crushing blow to the city's restaurant industry, a vital economic pillar that has been struggling all year," the N.Y. Times reports (subscription). - "Even as he announced the new restriction, the governor provided data that showed restaurants and bars were likely not the primary driver of new cases in the state, lagging far behind private gatherings."
|
| |
| |
| |
| 7. Hong Kong freedom in chains |
| Photo: Kin Cheung/AP Hong Kong pro-democracy activist and media tycoon Jimmy Lai is escorted to a prison van by Correctional Services officers before appearing in court. - Why it matters: Lai is the highest profile arrest under a new security law that "has been condemned by the West and human rights groups as a tool to crush dissent in the semi-autonomous, Chinese-ruled city." (Reuters)
|
| |
| |
| |
| 8. Dee Dee Myers joins Newsom cabinet |
| Dee Dee Myers at a forum in Vegas in 2018. Photo: John Locher/AP California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced that Dee Dee Myers, former Warner Bros. executive and the first female White House press secretary, will join his cabinet as a $200,004-a-year senior adviser, and director of the Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz): Myers, 59, of Los Angeles, joined the Newsom Administration in May as a volunteer at the peak of the COVID-19 public health crisis working to support the Governor and his team, including the Task Force on Business and Jobs Recovery. ... Myers served as Executive Vice President of Worldwide Corporate Communications and Public Affairs for Warner Bros. Prior to that, she was a Managing Director of the Glover Park Group ... Myers also served as White House Press Secretary during President Bill Clinton's first term. |
| |
| |
| |
| 9. Book will plumb Biden-Obama relationship |
| Spotted at a bookstore in New York City. Photo: Charles Guerin/Abaca Press via Reuters As his first book, New York Magazine national correspondent Gabriel Debenedetti is writing a book for Henry Holt & Co. on the "long, winding arc of the close, complex relationship between Joe Biden and Barack Obama." - I'm told that the book, which doesn't have a publication date, "will take a long view of the unprecedented relationship between the two presidents, looking at how the true, intricate stories of their intertwined careers — from the Senate to the White House, to the Trump era and back — goes far deeper than the popular bromance narrative."
Gabe tells me: "I've been covering Joe Biden, Barack Obama, and the Democrats for years, and the two presidents' thoroughly consequential relationship has always fascinated me — but never more than it did in the final weeks of the general election, and now during the transition." |
| |
| |
| |
| 10. Parting shot |
| Photo: Damian Dovarganes/AP A driver of a vintage vehicle wears a mask as he drives in Manhattan Beach, Calif., in the South Bay area of L.A. County. |
| |
| |
| |
| A message from UnitedHealth Group |
| How to make health care more affordable |
| |
 |
| |
| Transitioning to value-based arrangements for prescription drugs will lower consumer out-of-pocket costs by 28%, improve outcomes, and speed access to new curative therapies. Learn more about UnitedHealth Group's ideas to make health care more affordable. |
| |
| 📬 Thanks for starting your weekend with us. Please invite your friends to sign up for Axios AM/PM. |
No comments:
Post a Comment