Look up in the sky. What do you see? A former Wisconsin pharmacist allegedly believed the sky was a shield to stop people from seeing God. The recently released FBI search warrant application on defendant Steven R. Brandenburg, 46, reveals more context around the alleged motivations and mindset that fueled him sabotaging 570 doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine.

His pharmacy technician at Advocate Aurora Health Systems told investigators the defendant was big on conspiracy theories, according to documents (h/t The Daily Beast). For example, he would tell her the earth was flat, and the sky was not real. Instead, what we see up there is “a shield put up by the Government to prevent individuals from seeing God.” Also, “Judgment Day” was coming.

His attorney of record did not immediately respond to a Law&Crime request for comment.

Read the rest of the story at Law & Crime

President Joe Biden has agreed to meet a group of 10 Republican senators who have proposed a slimmed-down coronavirus relief plan that they say can win bipartisan support.

The Republicans’ proposed package is much smaller than Biden’s $1.9 trillion proposal, and includes $160 billion for vaccines, $4 billion for health and substance abuse services, the continuation of current unemployment aid and unspecified “targeted” economic assistance and help for schools.

The invitation came late Sunday after the senators requested the meeting.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Two men identified as members of the Proud Boys have been indicted on federal conspiracy and other charges in the Capitol riot as prosecutors raise the stakes in some of the slew of cases stemming from the Jan. 6 insurrection.

Dominic Pezzola, a former Marine who authorities say was seen on video smashing a Capitol window with a stolen Capitol Police riot shield, and William Pepe, who authorities said was photographed inside the building, were arrested earlier in the month on federal charges that included illegally entering a restricted building. The two, both from New York state, have now been indicted in Washington on charges that newly include conspiracy.

Read the rest of the story at Politico

Today’s guests were Glenn Kirschner, John Fugelsang, and Frangela

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Dominion Voting Systems spokesperson Michael Steel offered a thorough rebuttal to former president’s “big lie” about its machines engaging in election fraud and confirmed his company had drafted a demand letter to Trump in case it pursues a lawsuit against him.

Steel, who was previously the chief press secretary for GOP House Speaker John Boehner, told Deadline: White House host Nicolle Wallace that those pushing conspiracy theories about Dominion “have attacked a great American company” and “undermined the American people’s confidence in the democratic system.”

Steel then walked viewers through a few examples from a Washington Post debunking of the false claims made by Trump and his legal advocates Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, both of whom have now been named as defendants in separate $1.3 billion defamation lawsuits.

Read the rest of the story at Mediaite

The first two U.S. cases of the emerging Covid-19 variant first identified in South Africa were detected in South Carolina, state public health officials said Thursday.

Although no evidence suggests it causes more severe disease, the variant first identified in South Africa is known to be more resistant to current vaccines and may spread more easily and quickly than other variants.

There is no known travel history of the infected, and no connection between the two cases, the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control said in a release.

Read the rest of the story at Politico

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., on Thursday accused Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, of “trying to get me killed” by challenging the election results in the lead up to the Capitol riot and demanded that he resign.

The progressive lawmaker criticized Cruz after he said he agreed with her call for an investigation into why personal trading app Robinhood stopped allowing users to buy stocks including GameStop.

“I am happy to work with Republicans on this issue where there’s common ground, but you almost had me murdered 3 weeks ago so you can sit this one out. Happy to work w/ almost any other GOP that aren’t trying to get me killed. In the meantime if you want to help, you can resign,” she told Cruz in a tweet.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Andy Slavitt, senior adviser to the White House Covid-19 Response Team, said it will “be months” before all Americans who want a Covid-19 vaccine can get one. 

“I want to level with the public that we’re facing two constraining factors. The first is getting enough supply quickly enough, and the second is the ability to administer the vaccines quickly once they’re produced and sent out to the sites,” Slavitt said.

Read the rest of the story at CNN

Department of Homeland Security Secretary David Pekoske has issued a National Terrorism Advisory System (NTAS) bulletin warning the public of a “heightened threat environment” across the United States following last week’s presidential inauguration. The advisory, which comes after the violent assault on the Capitol on January 6, runs through the end of April. 

“Information suggests that some ideologically-motivated violent extremists with objections to the exercise of governmental authority and the presidential transition, as well as other perceived grievances fueled by false narratives, could continue to mobilize to incite or commit violence,” DHS said in issuing the bulletin. 

Read the rest of the story at CBS News

In a letter to all U.S. attorneys Tuesday, President Joe Biden‘s acting attorney general, Monty Wilkinson, officially rescinded the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” program, which led to the separation of over 3,000 migrant families, according to a copy of the letter obtained by NBC News.

Although it is largely symbolic, the move officially removes the policy from the Justice Department’s guidance to federal prosecutors and instructs prosecutors to use discretion when prosecuting misdemeanor border offenses.

Former President Donald Trump ended the practice of separating migrant children when their parents were prosecuted in an executive order in June 2018, but the policy of zero tolerance, which directs U.S. attorneys to prosecute anyone who crosses the border illegally, even for misdemeanors, was never officially rescinded.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

The Biden administration is planning to purchase an additional 200 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine, marking a stepped-up effort to vaccinate the vast majority of Americans this year.

Federal officials negotiating for the new supply expect to receive 100 million doses each from Moderna and Pfizer, in deals set to boost the nation’s total vaccine capacity to 600 million.

That would give the U.S. the ability to eventually vaccinate up to 300 million Americans, President Joe Biden said on Tuesday.

Read the rest of the story at Politico

President Joe Biden said he expects anyone who wants a coronavirus vaccination to be able to get one by the spring, and he upped his vaccination goal for his first 100 days in office.

Biden said Monday that he now believes the country can administer 1.5 million shots a day in the coming weeks and give 150 million vaccinations over the next 100 days, “with the grace of God.”

In December, Biden set a goal of 100 million vaccinations in his first 100 days, and at the time, no vaccine had been cleared for use. But with states ramping up their vaccination efforts in recent weeks, the country is already averaging Biden’s goal of around 1 million shots a day.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Former Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen was confirmed as treasury secretary Monday, with the Senate voting 84-15 to make her the first woman to lead the department.

Yellen steps into the role with some advantages: She is well known and well respected among lawmakers of both parties, and she has experience with enormous economic challenges. Yellen had been expected to be confirmed easily after her nomination passed the Senate Banking Committee on a 26-0 vote Friday.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Sen. Bernie Sanders on Sunday said Senate Democrats would pass a Covid-19 relief bill as soon as possible through budget reconciliation, which would allow the package to pass with a simple majority vote rather than with the support of 60 senators.

“We are going to use reconciliation, that is 50 votes in the Senate plus the vice president, to pass legislation desperately needed by working families in this country right now,” the Vermont senator told CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union” on Sunday. The new Senate stands on 50-50, with Vice President Kamala Harris as the tiebreaking vote when needed.

Read the rest of the story at Politico

President Joe Biden is set to sign a “Made in America” executive order Monday, fulfilling a long-time campaign promise to increase the amount of federal spending that goes to American companies.

The announcement comes at a time when the government is set to spend expansively on efforts to defeat COVID-19, and after a period during which vulnerabilities in the U.S. supply chain were exposed as state and local governments resorted to foreign manufacturers to obtain desperately-needed personal protective equipment.

Read the rest of the story at ABC News

Garrett Miller, a Texas man who participated in the insurrection at the Capitol, is facing serious federal charges for allegedly threatening to assassinate Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and a Capitol Police officer.

CNN’s Jessica Schneider told anchor Ana Cabrera that Miller was facing five charges related to his actions during the riot and for the online threats be posted on social media, including “assassinate AOC,” and, regarding a Capitol Police officer who shot a Trump supporter, “she deserves to die” and “won’t survive long” because it was “hunting season.”

According to prosecutors, Miller also wrote posts talking about a potential civil war and “next time we bring guns.”

Read the rest of the story at Mediaite

Then-President Donald Trump considered replacing acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen in January with Justice Department lawyer Jeffrey Clark, who was willing to help Trump push his claims of widespread voter fraud in order to overturn the election results, according to a Justice Department official.

Trump ultimately decided against firing Rosen out of fear that it would lead to mass resignations from Justice Department staff, which he worried could undermine his goal of staying in power.

Trump’s unsuccessful efforts to use the Justice Department to stay in office were first reported by The New York Times and confirmed by NBC News.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

President Joe Biden plans to sign a pair of executive orders Friday aimed at expanding food assistance for tens of millions of Americans and launching a process that will require federal contractors to pay their workers a $15 minimum wage and provide emergency paid leave.

The moves come on Biden’s second full day in office, and continue a string of executive actions he’s taken to jumpstart his agenda and set the tone for his administration amid a COVID-19 pandemic that has left families struggling economically.

Read the rest of the story at ABC News

Dr. Anthony Fauci, one of the government’s top public health experts, signaled that he feels free to speak honestly about Covid-19 now that former President Donald Trump is out of office.

In his first news briefing since President Joe Biden was sworn in, Fauci said that the new administration was committed to being “completely transparent, open and honest,” a sharp break from the Trump White House, when Fauci said he often felt there would be repercussions for speaking honestly about the pandemic.

“It was very clear that there were things said, be it regarding things like hydroxychloroquine and other things like that, that really was uncomfortable because they were not based in scientific fact,” Fauci told reporters, speaking about the Trump administration.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has proposed to Majority Leader Chuck Schumer that former President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial should start in mid-February, timing he laid out during a conference call with Republican colleagues Thursday, multiple sources on the call said.

Included in McConnell’s proposal is a deal to begin the Senate proceedings in February so both sides can properly prepare for Trump’s second impeachment trial, multiple people on the call said. Schumer could be open to the proposal, giving him more time to confirm President Joe Biden’s Cabinet nominees.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Every four years, thousands throng to Washington for a whirl of Inauguration Day balls and concerts. But as the coronavirus pandemic continues to force most big-ticket national events to scale down, President Joe Biden’s inaugural committee decided to take the festivities to TV screens.

“Celebrating America,” a 90-minute special that aired across several networks Wednesday night, brought together a mix of A-list talent — Justin Timberlake, John Legend, Demi Lovato — and average Americans from all walks of life, including teachers and nurses on the front lines of the Covid-19 crisis.

The special, which moved swiftly (more or less) between genre-spanning live performances and recorded video segments, was as much a celebration of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris’ ascent to the White House as it was a reflection of the new president’s political persona.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Twelve National Guard members were removed from inauguration duty, including two for “inappropriate” comments or texts, a Pentagon spokesman told reporters in a phone briefing Tuesday.

“We have two individuals that were identified as making inappropriate comments or texts,” said spokesperson Jonathan Hoffman.

One was removed after fellow troops brought the member’s comments to the attention of guard officers. Another was pulled out after an anonymous tip, he said.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

President-elect Joe Biden’s nominee to lead the Department of Homeland Security will pledge on Tuesday to do everything in his power to prevent attacks like the one that targeted the Capitol earlier this month, according to prepared remarks obtained by POLITICO.

Alejandro Mayorkas, who will appear before the Senate Homeland Security Committee for his confirmation hearing later Tuesday, plans to address the recent insurrection head-on, less than two weeks after a pro-Donald Trump mob stormed the Capitol in a series of violent riots that left five people dead and resulted in the president’s second impeachment.

Read the rest of the story at Politico

President Trump on Monday ordered an end to the ban on travelers from Europe and Brazil that had been aimed at stopping the spread of the coronavirus to the United States, a move quickly rejected by aides to President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr., who said Mr. Biden will maintain the ban when he takes office on Wednesday.

In a proclamation issued late Monday, Mr. Trump said that the travel restrictions, which apply to noncitizens trying to come to the United States after spending time in those areas, would no longer be needed on Jan. 26, the date on which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will start requiring all passengers from abroad to present proof of a negative coronavirus test before boarding a flight.

Read the rest of the story at The New York Times

The New Yorker on Sunday published 12 minutes of new, surreal footage from inside the Capitol during the mob rampage that left five people dead earlier this month.

See the video at Yahoo News

President Donald Trump is planning to issue a massive pile of pardons on Tuesday, his last full day in office, according to a report by CNN.

White House reporter Jeremy Diamond told The Situation Room anchor Wolf Blitzer that three sources familiar with Trump’s plans told him that the president intended to pardon about 100 people.

“The pardons, we’re told,” Diamond said, “are expected to include a mixture of more controversial pardons to white collar criminals, high profile rappers, as well as potentially some of the president’s political allies, but also in this batch several pardons that are more criminal justice reform minded,” like his commutation of Alice Marie Johnson’s sentence in 2018.

Read the rest of the story at Mediaite

Seeking an end-run around an investigation by the New York attorney general, the National Rifle Association said Friday that it was declaring bankruptcy and would reincorporate in Texas. The gun group was set up in New York after the Civil War.

The group’s effort to circumvent New York’s legal jurisdiction raised immediate questions from Letitia James, the New York attorney general and a Democrat, who is seeking to use her regulatory authority to dissolve the N.R.A. She has been conducting an investigation into corruption at the gun group since 2019.

Read the rest of the story at The New York Times

A Pennsylvania man accused of hurling a fire extinguisher at a group of police officers during last week’s Capitol riot has been arrested, authorities said.

Robert Sanford, 55, a retired firefighter from the Chester Fire Department, has been charged with four federal counts, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia in Washington said.

The fire extinguisher struck an officer who was wearing a helmet in the head, then ricocheted and hit two other officers, one of whom was not wearing a helmet, in the head, prosecutors said.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

President Donald Trump on Tuesday lashed out at the impeachment effort by House Democrats, claiming “it’s causing tremendous anger” and “danger to our country.”

“As far as this is concerned, we want no violence — never violence,” Trump said outside the White House before departing for Texas, facing reporters for the first time since his supporters rioted last Wednesday after he urged them to march on the Capitol. “On the impeachment, it’s really a continuation of the greatest witch hunt in the history of politics. It’s ridiculous. It’s absolutely ridiculous. This impeachment is causing tremendous anger, and you’re doing it, and it’s really a terrible thing that they’re doing.”

Read the rest of the story at ABC News

Several Republican members of Congress on Tuesday complained about — or outright bypassed — the metal detectors to enter the House floor, which were ordered put in place by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., after last week’s deadly riot at the Capitol.

Ahead of a House vote Tuesday evening calling for Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove President Donald Trump from office, the Republican members expressed anger and frustration in accessing the chamber.

Republican Reps. Louie Gohmert of Texas, Steve Stivers of Ohio, Van Taylor of Texas, Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Debbie Lesko of Arizona and Larry Bucshon of Indiana, among others, were seen not complying with police at checkpoints or complained about the measure’s implementation, according to press pool and media reports.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

America has reported its deadliest week yet in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic. More than 22,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 just last week — setting the record for the second week in a row. California is the nation’s hot spot.

In Los Angeles, COVID deaths have risen 1,125% in the last two months, according to county health officials.

Dr. Brad Spellberg of the L.A. County-USC Medical Center — the region’s largest hospital — said the state is getting crushed.

Read the rest of the story at CBS News

The FBI has sent a memo to law enforcement agencies across the country warning about possible armed protests at all 50 state capitols starting Saturday and saying an armed group has threatened to travel to Washington, D.C., the same day to stage an uprising if Congress removes President Donald Trump from office, according to a senior law enforcement official.

The memo includes information provided by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the Drug Enforcement Administration; the Defense Department; U.S. Park Police; and the U.S. Marshals Service, among other agencies, according to the official. Some of the information came from social media, some from open sources and some from other sources of information.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Two men allegedly seen in viral photographs of the deadly assault on the U.S. Capitol have been arrested, the Washington, D.C., attorney general announced Sunday. Larry Rendell Brock and Eric Gavelek Munchel were both allegedly seen in pictures of the riot occupying the chambers of Congress while wearing tactical gear and holding plastic zip ties.

Munchel was arrested in Tennessee on Sunday, the Justice Department said. He was charged with one count of knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority and one count of violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds. A law enforcement source told CBS News that “a load of weapons” was found at Munchel’s residence and they are assessing whether they were legally owned.

Read the rest of the story at CBS News

House members may have been exposed to Covid-19 when they went into hiding during Wednesday riots at the U.S. Capitol, Congress’ attending physician wrote in a letter to members and staffers Sunday.

“Many members of the House community were in protective isolation in [a] room located in a large committee hearing space,” Dr. Brian Monahan said, adding, “During this time, individuals may have been exposed to another occupant with coronavirus infection.”

He advised members to keep up their “usual daily coronavirus risk reduction measures,” such as social distancing and symptoms checks. He said they should also get tested for the virus as a precaution.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos announced their resignations Thursday, citing the pro-Trump rioters who stormed the Capitol on Wednesday.

“Yesterday, our country experienced a traumatic and entirely avoidable event as supporters of the president stormed the Capitol building following a rally he addressed,” Chao said in a statement she posted on Twitter. “As I’m sure is the case with many of you, it has deeply troubled me in a way that I simply cannot set aside.”

Chao said her last day would be Monday, and she suggested that she would use some of her final days to help President-elect Joe Biden’s nominee for her job, Pete Buttigieg, “with taking on the responsibility of running this wonderful department.”

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

A U.S. Capitol Police officer has died a day after clashing with a pro-Trump mob at the U.S. Capitol.

Officer Brian D. Sicknick was injured while engaging with protesters Wednesday and returned to his division office, where he collapsed, Capitol Police spokeswoman Eva Malecki said. He was taken to a hospital, where he died about 9:30 p.m. Thursday.

Sicknick, who joined the U.S. Capitol Police in 2008, is the fifth person to die from Wednesday’s violent clash in Washington.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

There have been discussions among some members of the Trump Cabinet and allies of President Donald Trump about the 25th Amendment, which would be a vehicle for members of the cabinet to remove Trump from office, multiple sources with direct knowledge of the discussions tell ABC News.

It is unclear how extensive these conversations have been or if Vice President Mike Pence is supportive of such action. Many have been horrified by Wednesday’s events and Trump’s encouragement and lack of engagement to call in resources to stop the protesters, the sources said.

Read the rest of the story at ABC News

Vice President Mike Pence announced just after 3:40 a.m. Thursday that President-elect Joe Biden had won the presidency after Congress completed the counting of the Electoral College votes. What was largely seen as a perfunctory last step before Mr. Biden’s inauguration had turned into a day of chaos after an angry mob of rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol in an effort to halt the process. 

Congress had to recess for nearly six hours after the angry mob of President Trump’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol, leaving four people dead in the melee and sending members of Congress fleeing from the floor during what Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had earlier branded “the most important vote I’ve ever cast.”

Read the rest of the story at CBS News

The police officers involved in the shooting of Jacob Blake, which touched off days of civil unrest last summer in Wisconsin, will not face any criminal charges, authorities said Tuesday.

Blake, who is Black, was struck by seven bullets at close range Aug. 23 as he walked away from Kenosha police Officer Rusten Sheskey, who had answered a domestic disturbance call.

Kenosha County District Attorney Michael Graveley told reporters that Sheskey and other officers would have had a strong case for self-defense.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Several people were arrested in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday in connection to protests ahead of Congress’ certification of the Electoral College votes on Wednesday.

Washington D.C. Metropolitan Police said six arrests were made as of 9 p.m. ET, including some involving multiple charges. Those charges included a handful that were weapons-related, including carrying firearms without a license, possession of unregistered ammunition and possession of an unregistered firearm. Protesters were also charged with assaulting a police officer and simple assault.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

President Donald Trump turned up the pressure Tuesday to enlist Vice President Mike Pence in a futile effort to reverse the presidential election and keep them in office for four more years.

With a president who has excelled at remaining the focus of Washington, Pence has largely played the role of quiet support character, never publicly rebuking his boss and sticking to his script with unwavering consistency.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

During his speech at a Georgia senate campaign rally, President Donald Trump issued a not-so-veiled threat to his own vice president, implicitly encouraging Mike Pence to “come through for us” and somehow overturn the counting of the Electoral College vote in Congress on January 6th.

In a stilted and rambling speech, Trump suddenly went off-script and veered away from attacking the Democratic candidates running against GOP incumbent Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler. His tangent took him back to his own fruitless fight to remain in office and the increasingly desperate gambit of Pence throwing out the certified votes in swing states won by Biden and anoint Trump the victor, in what would amount to an administrative coup.

Read the rest of the story at Mediaite

Dr. Anthony Fauci said Sunday that he did not anticipate the COVID-19pandemic death toll in the United States would reach current levels, lamenting that indoor activity and holiday travel has facilitated virus transmission and calling for Americans to take the necessary public safety precautions to slow the ongoing surge.

“To have 300,000 cases in a given day, and between two and 3,000 deaths a day is just terrible,” the nation’s top infectious disease expert told ABC’s “This Week” Co-anchor Martha Raddatz Sunday. “There’s no running away from the numbers, Martha. It’s something that we absolutely got to grasp and get our arms around and turn that inflection down by very intensive adherence to the public health measures, uniformly, throughout the country, with no exception.”

Read the rest of the story at ABC News

The U.S. military must not become entangled in any election disputes in the coming days, all 10 living former Defense secretaries wrote in an op-ed published on Sunday.

“American elections and the peaceful transfers of power that result are hallmarks of our democracy,” they wrote in The Washington Post, adding that everyone in the American defense establishment must “refrain from any political actions that undermine the results of the election or hinder the success of the new team.”

Read the rest of the story at Politico

Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., was re-elected speaker of the House on Sunday despite a shrinking Democratic majority in the House.

With Democrats holding a smaller majority than in the previous Congress, Pelosi could afford to have only a handful of lawmakers peel off and opt to write in someone else. The final count was 216 to 209, with just two Democrats — Jared Golden of Maine and Conor Lamb of Pennsylvania — choosing someone other than Pelosi and three others voting present.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy got 209 votes from his own party. Pelosi won the previous vote for speaker by 220-192 over McCarthy.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Many Americans are waking up this week to at least $600 more in their bank accounts as the federal government begins to disburse the newest round of Covid-19 relief funds.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Tuesday that direct deposit payments could appear any time from that night to next week. Paper checks were mailed out beginning Wednesday, Mnuchin said, for qualifying Americans who have not registered their banking information with the IRS.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Documented Covid-19 cases in the United States surged past 20 million on Friday amid record hospitalizations and staggering numbers of daily deaths, according to a tracker maintained by Johns Hopkins University.

The 20 millionth case comes less than two months after the country tallied its 10 millionth. The U.S. leads the globe in Covid-19 deaths, with the disease claiming the lives of nearly 336,000 people.

Read the rest of the story at Politico

​Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, speaking on the Senate floor Thursday, said he believes a “bipartisan, bicameral agreement appears to be close at hand” on a COVID-19 relief deal.

“I’m encouraged that our Democratic colleagues have now embraced this framework, that’s been the right solution for our country all this time,” he said.

Lawmakers are working furiously to announce a $900 billion deal ahead of a government funding deadline at midnight Friday, but McConnell warned senators that a short-term funding bill is expected and that it is “highly likely” senators will have to work through the weekend to finish both bills: one for COVID-19 relief and the other a massive $1.4 trillion spending bill.

Read the rest of the story at ABC News

Congressional leaders and the White House are nearing agreement on a roughly $900 billion coronavirus relief dealthat will likely include a new round of direct payments, three sources familiar with the negotiations said Wednesday.

The emerging package will include enhanced federal jobless benefits, small-business funding, and money to distribute Covid-19 vaccines. The dollar amount of the stimulus payments has not yet been determined — some say it will probably be $600 per person while others said it may be higher.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

A Republican Senate committee chairman on Wednesday used his panel to keep pressing allegations of what he called “election irregularities” as President Donald Trump appeared to watch from the White House, as Democrats decried the hearing as lending credence to Trump’s baseless claims of fraud.

While Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson, a strong Trump supporter who chairs the Senate Homeland Security Committee, has now said he accepts Joe Biden as the president-elect and that he will not challenge the Electoral College results when Congress meets to certify them next month, he insisted the hearing should “not be controversial.”

Read the rest of the story at ABC News

French President Emmanuel Macron has tested positive for COVID-19, the presidential Elysee Palace announced on Thursday.

It said the president took a test “as soon as the first symptoms appeared.” The brief statement did not say what symptoms Macron experienced.

It said he would isolate himself for seven days. “He will continue to work and take care of his activities at a distance,” it added.

Read the rest of the story at ABC News

President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. on Tuesday urged Georgia voters to cast ballots for two Democratic Senate candidates in a pair of critical runoffs early next month that he hopes will give his party control of the Senate and help Democrats advance the agenda he promised during his campaign.

“You all did something extraordinary in November,” Mr. Biden said to cheers and honks at a drive-in campaign rally intended to minimize the spread of the coronavirus. “You voted in record numbers in order to improve the lives of every Georgian. And you voted as if your life depended on it.”

Read the rest of the story at The New York Times

President-elect Joe Biden is expected to name former 2020 rival and South Bend Mayor, Pete Buttigieg to head the Department of Transportation, sources familiar with the transition told ABC News Tuesday.

If confirmed, Buttigieg would bring new diversity to the administration Biden has promised will “look like America,” as the first openly gay Cabinet secretary approved by the U.S. Senate to serve in U.S. history.

Buttigieg, at age 38, would also be the youngest person nominated to Biden’s Cabinet — bringing the average age of Biden’s Cabinet and Cabinet-level appointees down from 61 to 59.

Read the rest of the story at ABC News

The rollout of the first coronavirus vaccine began Monday morning and marked a major turning point in the U.S.’s battle against surging case numbers as the first doses of the Pfizer medication was administered to health care workers and nursing home staffers.

Sandra Lindsay, a critical care nurse from Northwell Long Island Jewish Medical Center was the first vaccinated in New York at 9:23 a.m. during a livestreamed event with Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

Read the rest of the story at ABC News

Presidential electors are meeting across the United States on Monday to formally choose Joe Biden as the nation’s next president.

Monday is the day set by law for the meeting of the Electoral College. In reality, electors meet in all 50 states and the District of Columbia to cast their ballots. The results will be sent to Washington and tallied in a Jan. 6 joint session of Congress over which Vice President Mike Pence will preside.

The electors’ votes have drawn more attention than usual this year because President Donald Trump has refused to concede the election and continued to make baseless allegations of fraud.

Read the rest of the story at The Associated Press

Hackers who targeted the federal government appear to be part of a Russian intelligence campaign aimed at multiple U.S. agencies and companies, including the cybersecurity company FireEye, officials said Sunday.

A Commerce Department spokesman confirmed a breach, saying it occurred at an unidentified bureau.

Department officials alerted the FBI and a cybersecurity agency within the Department of Homeland Security, the spokesman said, declining to comment further.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Four states sued by Texas in a bid to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election asked the U.S. Supreme Court Thursday to swiftly reject the case and avoid legitimizing “a cacophony of bogus claims” that would upend the will of millions of American voters.

In court filings Thursday afternoon, the attorneys general of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan and Georgia each offered scathing rebuttals to the Texas suit targeting their states.

“The Court should not abide this seditious abuse of the judicial process,” wrote Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro in court documents.

Read the rest of the story at ABC News

Sources on both sides of the aisle in the Senate told ABC News that chances for a grand compromise on a COVID-19 relief package are growing dimmer, though some aides to negotiators insist there is still hope.

The major sticking point? A shield against lawsuits for businesses, health care facilities, and schools — a top GOP issue.

Making a compromise even less likely, particularly for Republicans, ABC News has confirmed that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has signaled through staff that he is not in favor of a $908 billion bipartisan proposal, saying it would not be supported by most in his conference. The news was first reported by Politico.

Read the rest of the story at ABC News

Hunter Biden, the president-elect’s embattled son, announced Wednesday that federal prosecutors in Delaware are investigating his “tax affairs,” a development that marks the latest controversy surrounding the Biden family’s private business endeavors.

In his statement, Hunter Biden, 50, said he and his attorney learned of the investigation on Tuesday, and that he remains “confident that a professional and objective review of these matters will demonstrate that I handled my affairs legally and appropriately, including with the benefit of professional tax advisors.”

Read the rest of the story at ABC News

Authorities in Florida on Monday raided the home of Rebekah Jones, a former state official who has said she was ousted this year for refusing to censor the state’s coronavirus data.

In a search warrant, an investigator with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement said a person at Jones’ home who was using her email address illegally gained access to a state-run communications platform and sent a group text Nov. 10 telling people that it was “time to speak up before another 17,000 people are dead.”

“You know this is wrong,” the text said, according to the warrant. “You don’t have to be part of this. Be a hero. Speak out before it’s too late.”

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

President-elect Joe Biden is expected to nominate retired Army Gen. Lloyd Austin to be defense secretary, according to three people familiar with the decision.

If confirmed, Austin, 67, a retired four-star general and former head of U.S. Central Command, or CENTCOM, would be the first African American to lead the Defense Department. He was also the first Black American to lead Central Command, which oversees the U.S. military in the Middle East and parts of Africa, Central Asia and South Asia.

Austin was offered the job Sunday. He became the front-runner over the past week, but his relationship with Biden goes back years. The two spent many hours working together when Austin was running CENTCOM.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.) declined multiple times to answer whether President Donald Trump lost the November election while repeatedly attacking her opponent, Rev. Raphael Warnock, as a radical during the sole debate of their special election runoff next month.

Warnock, the pastor of the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, countered Loeffler’s attacks by repeatedly criticizing her stock trades made in office and her handling of the coronavirus pandemic, saying she had no proactive case for her election to the seat to which she was appointed earlier this year.

Read the rest of the story at Politico

President-elect Joe Biden will nominate California Attorney General Xavier Becerra to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, three sources familiar with the decision said.

Becerra, 62, served 12 terms in the House of Representatives and was a vigorous defender of the Affordable Care Act who led the defense of the law in the Supreme Court last month.

If he is confirmed, he would be the first Latino to lead the massive department as the incoming administration tries to elevate more diverse candidates to front-line positions. Biden offered Becerra the position in a phone call Friday.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

President Donald Trump emphatically called on Georgia voters to cast ballots for Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler in next month’s runoff Senate elections but spent much of his first rally since losing the presidency denying the new reality.

The president several times falsely claimed he had won Georgia and the presidency, lambasted top Georgia Republicans like Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, and pushed for wholesale changes to the election system.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Attorney General William Barr said Tuesday that there was no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election, defying President Donald Trump’s ongoing efforts to reverse the results.

“To date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election,” Barr said in an interview with The Associated Press.

Barr’s comments are some of the sharpest rejections yet from a Cabinet member of Trump’s false and baseless claims of a “rigged” election.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

The United Kingdom became the first country Wednesday to formally approve the Pfizer and BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine, a huge symbolic milestone in the fight against the pandemic.

The first inoculations are set to be rolled out next week, the government said, although the initial batch of 800,000 will cover a relatively small number of healthcare workers, care home staff and residents, and people over the age of 80.

The vaccine has been authorized far more quickly than any other in history, its lightning development outpacing the 15 to 20 years it usually takes to develop these types of medicines.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

President Donald Trump seemed to demand a “call off” for the upcoming Senate runoff election in Georgia, are race that is set to determine control of the Senate.

“Do something Brian Kemp,” Trump tweeted at the Republican governor of the state. “You allowed your state to be scammed. We must check signatures and count signed envelopes against ballots. Then call off election. It won’t be needed. We will all WIN!

Read the rest of the story at Mediaite

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Wisconsin finished a recount of its presidential results on Sunday, confirming Democrat Joe Biden’s victory over President Donald Trump in the key battleground state. Trump vowed to challenge the outcome in court even before the recount concluded.

Dane County was the second and last county to finish its recount, reporting a 45-vote gain for Trump. Milwaukee County, the state’s other big and overwhelmingly liberal county targeted in a recount that Trump paid $3 million for, reported its results Friday, a 132-vote gain for Biden.

Taken together, the two counties barely budged Biden’s winning margin of about 20,600 votes, giving the winner a net gain of 87 votes.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris announced an all-female communications team Sunday aimed at bringing “diverse perspectives” to the White House.

Jen Psaki, a top member of the transition team who served in the Obama-Biden administration, was chosen as White House press secretary. Kate Bedingfield, who was deputy Biden-Harris campaign manager, will be White House communications director.

In a statement, Biden said the team was made up of “qualified, experienced communicators” who will “bring diverse perspectives to their work and a shared commitment to building this country back better.”

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

The U.S. Supreme Court issued an injunction late Wednesday blocking New York’s governor from enforcing 10- and 25-person occupancy limits on religious institutions, granting a request from the Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn and Agudath Israel.

The state had told the court there was no need to act because the restrictions, which were adopted as a way to try to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, had recently been dialed back.

The court apparently divided 5-4, with Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Stephen Breyer Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan dissenting.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Former President Barack Obama’s “A Promised Land” sold more than 1.7 million copies in North America in its first week, roughly equal to the combined first week sales of memoirs by his two immediate predecessors and among the highest ever for a nonfiction book.

Crown announced Tuesday that it had increased its initial print run from 3.4 million copies to 4.3 million. Sales also include audio and digital books.

“A Promised Land,” the first of two planned volumes, was published Nov. 17 and sold nearly 890,000 copies just in its first day. Among former White House residents, only Obama’s wife Michelle approaches his popularity as a writer. Her “Becoming,” published in 2018, has sold more than 10 million copies worldwide and is currently in the top 20 on Amazon.com.

Read the rest of the story at ABC News

President Donald Trump has kept an unusually low profile since his election defeat, making few public appearances and hardly speaking except for on Twitter.

But when the Dow Jones Industrial Average crossed 30,000 for the first time on Tuesday, Trump emerged to take a victory lap.

“That is a sacred number,” said Trump, who has long fixated on the stock market as the barometer of his administration’s economic performance. “Nobody thought they’d ever see it.”

Read the rest of the story at Politico

When infections began rising sharply in the U.S. in September, the growth was driven largely by outbreaks in the Upper Midwest. States like North Dakota and Wisconsin soon became the hardest hit in the nation, relative to their size, and the region continues to struggle.

Now, though, with the whole country’s daily average of new cases is as high as it has ever been — over 171,000 — the most rapid growth is happening elsewhere. Nine states are reporting more than twice as many new cases a day as they did two weeks ago, and none of them are in the Midwest.

Read the rest of the story at The New York Times

President-elect Joe Biden is expected to name Janet Yellen as his pick for treasury secretary, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.

If confirmed by the Senate, Yellen, 74, will be the first woman to hold the top job.

Biden’s selection of Yellen is a signal of stability at a time of economic fragility amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Read the rest of the story at ABC News

Alejandro Mayorkas, the first Latino chosen for President-elect Joe Biden’s Cabinet, will head a Department of Homeland Security that is expected to drastically overhaul President Donald Trump’s hard-line immigration policies, as well as put Mayorkas at the forefront of the new administration’s anti-terrorism strategy.

Mayorkas will be the first Latino and first immigrant to head the Department of Homeland Security, if confirmed by the Senate. The highest-ranking Cuban American in the Obama administration, Mayorkas was deputy secretary of DHS under then-Secretary Jeh Johnson, and before that was the director of Citizenship and Immigration Services, a part of DHS that oversees granting citizenship and other immigration benefits.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

President Donald Trump appears to have cut ties with Sidney Powell, a key member of his legal team who also represents former national security adviser Michael Flynn in his long-running attempt to unravel a guilty plea for lying about his 2016 contacts with Russia.

The abrupt shake-up came in a terse Sunday-evening statement from the Trump campaign that offered no explanation for Powell’s removal.

“Sidney Powell is practicing law on her own,” Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and campaign lawyer Jenna Ellis said in the statement. “She is not a member of the Trump Legal Team. She is also not a lawyer for the President in his personal capacity.”

Read the rest of the story at Politico

British pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca said on Monday that its vaccine for Covid-19 could be up to 90 percent effective in preventing the disease — the third promising breakthrough in the fight against a pandemic that has killed nearly 1.4 million people worldwide.

“This vaccine’s efficacy and safety confirm that it will be highly effective against Covid-19 and will have an immediate impact on this public health emergency,” Pascal Soriot, Chief Executive Officer, said in a statement.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

President Donald Trump’s campaign said Saturday it is seeking a second recount of presidential election votes in Georgia after the first one did not turn out in his favor.

Under state election rules the campaign is within its rights; the first hand recount, completed Thursday and certified Friday, had been automatically triggered by a new state law.

Campaigns can request an additional machine recount if a vote margin is within 0.5 percent. The final certified results had Joe Biden at 49.51 percent compared to Trump at 49.25 percent for a margin of 0.26 percent.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Congress will head home for a week-long Thanksgiving holiday recess without passing any sort of compromise coronavirus relief bill as the U.S. death toll passes 250,000 and millions of Americans remain on unemployment.

But there is some hope that renewed talks could see some sort of coronavirus relief aid in the coming weeks even with little time remaining on the legislative calendar before the end of the year.

Democratic aides have told ABC News that staffers of the congressional ‘Big Four’ met Thursday to discuss ways coronavirus relief could be tacked on to a must-pass spending bill that needs to clear both chambers of Congress by Dec. 11 to avert a government shutdown. The ‘Big Four’ includes House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.

Read the rest of the story at ABC News

President Donald Trump‘s legal team on Thursday staged a bizarre 90-minute press conference where they outlined plans to resurrect a crumbling legal strategy, in part by recycling a litany of false claims — including several that have already been rejected in the courts.

Rudy Giuliani led the effort in a winding, and at times, angry speech in which he lashed out at the mainstream press for failing to repeat his unsubstantiated allegations of election fraud. Giuliani, sweating profusely, told gathered reporters that the claims would be the foundation of new lawsuits in multiple states.

Read the rest of the story at ABC News

Attorneys representing President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign in challenging thousands of ballots in Bucks County, Pennsylvania agreed to sign court documents on Wednesday informing the court that there was no evidence of fraud or misconduct pertaining to those ballots.

The lawsuit—filed last week by the campaign as well as the Republican National Committee and two GOP candidates for state office—sought to have the Bucks County Court of Common Pleas invalidate more than 2,200 “defective ballots” that were counted following a review by the Board of Elections.

Read the rest of the story at Law & Crime

President-elect Joe Biden got emotional during a video conference with a group of health care workers treating Covid-19 patients, getting teary-eyed after hearing a heartbreaking story from an ICU nurse.

CNN’s Brooke Baldwin played a clip of the discussion Wednesday, introducing the video as part of a segment with reporter Arlette Saenz about the challenges the Biden transition team is facing getting the Trump administration to cooperate with them.

“So Biden really, for the fourth day in a row, he and his team are again pressing the case and trying to keep the pressure on the Trump administration to begin coordinating with them when it comes to the coronavirus pandemic,” said Saenz, and as part of his effort to “trying to put a personal face to this pandemic,” Biden held a video conference with “the front line health care workers who are battling this virus day in and day out.”

Read the rest of the story at Mediaite

The two Republicans on the Wayne County (Mich.) Board of Canvassers now want to “rescind” their vote to certify the 2020 election results in their county, releasing an affidavit late on Wednesday night that seeks to double back on their flip-flop from just one day earlier.

On Tuesday night, Monica Palmer and William Hartmann initially voted against certification, deadlocking the county board in a 2 – 2 tie, which would’ve pushed the vote certification up to a state board for review. The shocking move ignited a fierce, public backlashand over the course of a three-hour public meeting, the pair ultimately changed their minds, endorsing a second, unanimous vote validating the vote, which included hundreds of thousands of votes for President-elect Joe Biden from majority African-American Detroit.

Read the rest of the story at Mediaite

The U.S. troop presence in Afghanistan and Iraq will be reduced to 2,500 in each country by mid-January, acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller announced on Tuesday.

Miller made the announcement in remarks to Pentagon reporters that highlighted the next step in what he called “President Trump’s plan to bring the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq to a successful and responsible conclusion and to bring our brave service members home.”

He said that President Donald Trump made the decision to draw down troops in both countries in consultation with his top national securityofficials and that it did not amount to a change in policy.

Read the rest of the story at ABC News

Sen. Chuck Grassley, the second-oldest member of the Senate, has tested positive for coronavirus.

The 87-year-old Iowa Republican said in a statement that he learned he was exposed to the coronavirus Tuesday morning and received a positive test.

“While I still feel fine, the test came back positive for the coronavirus,” Grassley said. “I am continuing to follow my doctors’ orders and CDC guidelines. I’ll be keeping up my work for the people of Iowa from home.”

Read the rest of the story at Politico

President Donald Trump was talked out of nascent plans to strike at Iran’s main nuclear site in the few remaining weeks of his administration.

Per a report in the New York Times, Trump asked about options to hit the country during an Oval Office meeting last week, just one day after the International Atomic Energy Agency published a report that estimated Iran has now rebuilt its stockpile to nearly three tons of enriched uranium, enough to build two nuclear weapons. When Trump pulled the U.S. out of the Iranian nuclear deal in 2018, the country had off-loaded 97 percent of its old stockpile out of the country, leaving it with too little uranium to build even one weapon.

Read the rest of the story at Mediaite

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger appeared on CNN Monday night to talk about the attacks he’s gotten from fellow Republicans and to clarify a stunning claim he made about his conversation with Senator Lindsey Graham.

In a new Washington Post interview, Raffensperger claimed that Graham suggested he exclude legal ballots

Read the rest of the story at Mediaite

Fervent supporters of President Donald Trump rallied in Washington on Saturday behind his spurious claim of a stolen election and swarmed his motorcade in adulation when he detoured for a drive-by on his way out of town.

Hours later, after night fell in the nation’s capital, demonstrators favoring Trump clashed in the streets with counterprotesters, videos posted on social media showing fistfights, projectiles and clubs. Police arrested at least 20 people on a variety of charges, including assault and weapons possession, officials said. One stabbing was reported, two police officers were injured and several firearms were also recovered by police.

Read the rest of the story at ABC News

President Donald Trump suggested Sunday that Joe Biden had “won” the presidential election while saying that the election was rigged — a claim that has been widely debunked.

“He won because the Election was Rigged,” Trump wrote before falsely claiming that no watchers or observers had been allowed.

It was not clear whether the tweet represented a grudging or an accidental concession by Trump that he had lost the election, which he has repeatedly claimed to have won, even after every major news organization projected Biden as the victor.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

President-elect Joe Biden’s incoming chief of staff, Ron Klain, urged the Trump administration Sunday to reverse course and begin working on a presidential transition so “nothing drops in this change of power” that would jeopardize the new administration’s ability to distribute a coronavirus vaccine.

President Donald Trump and his campaign continue to pursue legal challenges in several states contesting results and making unfounded allegations of widespread fraud.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

The coronavirus pandemic is spreading with frightening speed throughout the United States, shattering records on a daily basis, stretching medical resources to breaking point and once again prompting states, counties and cities to consider economically devastating lockdowns.

On Thursday, public health officials recorded more than 150,000 new cases in a day for the first time — more than 160,000, in fact. It was only eight days earlier that the country had its first 100,000-case day. Six of the last nine days have set new records, and with colder weather driving people indoors, there is little reason to expect a respite soon.’

Read the rest of the story at The New York Times.

As President Donald Trump’s lawyers cling to their far-fetched schemes to overturn the presidential election, it was increasingly clear Thursday that cracks are forming in Trump’s Republican wall of support, as more GOP members stepped forward to say that President-elect Joe Biden should receive national intelligence briefings and others began to acknowledge the long-shot nature of the President’s quest.

Read the rest of the story at CNN

The firing of Defense Secretary Mark Esper kicked off a rapid-fire series of high-level departures at the Pentagon on Tuesday, setting off alarms on Capitol Hill that the White House was installing loyalists to carry out President Donald Trump’s wishes during an already tense transition.

In quick succession, top officials overseeing policy, intelligence and the defense secretary’s staff all had resigned by the end of the day Tuesday, replaced by political operatives who are fiercely loyal to Trump and have trafficked in “deep state” conspiracy theories.

Fears continue to swirl over what these newly installed leaders will do as Trump fights the results of last week’s election, and after he has shown he is willing to use troops to solve political problems.

Read the rest of the story at Politico

Several loyalists to President Donald Trump were promoted to top roles in the Defense Department on Tuesday after officials resigned following the unceremonious ouster of Defense Secretary Mark Esper.

The Pentagon confirmed the resignations of the department’s top officials for policy and intelligence in a statement. The resignations include those of James Anderson, the acting undersecretary for policy; Joseph Kernan, the undersecretary for intelligence; and Jen Stewart, Esper’s chief of staff. The release said Kernan’s resignation had been “planned for several months.”

Retired Army Gen. Anthony Tata, a frequent Fox News guest, will replace Anderson. Ezra Cohen-Watnick, who works in the Defense Department and was an aide to the disgraced former national security adviser Michael Flynn, will replace Kernan. Kash Patel, a former National Security Council official and former aide to Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., who worked on the controversial House investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, will replace Stewart.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson and David Bossie, an outside White House adviser, have both tested positive for Covid-19, becoming the latest figures in President Donald Trump’s orbit to contract the virus.

Bossie, a longtime Trump ally who was tapped to lead the effort to contest the presidential election, tested positive Sunday, according to a person familiar with the situation. Bossie did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.

Carson went to Walter Reed Army Medical Center for a test Monday morning after experiencing symptoms, according to a HUD official, who declined to discuss details of the symptoms.

Read the rest of the story at Politico

Jason Miller, a senior adviser to President Donald Trump’s reelection effort, said Monday that the campaign was not remotely considering conceding to President-elect Joe Biden after the Democratic nominee was declared the winner of the 2020 White House race.

“That word is not even in our vocabulary right now,” Miller said in an interviewon Fox Business.

“We’re going to go and pursue all these legal means, all the recount methods,” he said. “We’re going to continue exposing and investigating all these instances of fraud or abuse, and make sure … [that] the American public can have full confidence in these elections.”

Read the rest of the story at Politico