Trump Administration

The Guardian reports: The US could have averted 40% of the deaths from Covid-19, had the country’s death rates corresponded with the rates in other high-income G7 countries, according to a Lancet commission tasked with assessing Donald Trump’s health policy record. Almost 470,000 Americans have died from the coronavirus so far, with the number widely expected to go above half …

The Wall Street Journal reports: A U.S. plan to force the sale of TikTok’s American operations to a group including Oracle Corp.and Walmart Inc. has been shelved indefinitely, people familiar with the situation said, as President Biden undertakes a broad review of his predecessor’s efforts to address potential security risks from Chinese tech companies. The TikTok deal—which had been driven …

NBC News reports: The Biden administration will begin removing all Senate-confirmed U.S. attorneys appointed during the Trump administration, with two exceptions, a senior Justice Department official said. The process, which is not uncommon, could start as early as Tuesday. They will be asked to resign. John Durham will remain in place to investigate the origins of the Russia probe, but …

The Washington Post reports: In a wide-ranging interview with CBS News, President Biden expressed disappointment with how his predecessor handled the coronavirus pandemic, specifically the number of vaccine doses that were available to inoculate the population. “The circumstances of how the [previous] administration handled covid was even more dire than we thought,” he said in a segment that aired Sunday …

Politico reports: Mike Pence is returning to his radio roots after a 22-year hiatus from the airwaves. The former vice president will launch a podcast in the coming months hosted by the Young America’s Foundation, a conservative youth organization dating back to the 1960s. Pence will join YAF as the group’s first Ronald Reagan presidential scholar, and is expected to …

Salon reports: A year-end federal filing from former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows shows legal expenses that experts say indicate it is “highly likely” the North Carolina Republican is under scrutiny for campaign finance violations. Those payments covered gourmet cupcakes, grocery store purchases, a cell phone bill, posh meals and lodging at Donald Trump’s Washington hotel, according to …

Mediaite reports: Former White House press aide Hogan Gidley urged “woke” businesses to hire supporters of former President Donald Trump because of their “depth knowledge of how the government works.” Gidley then added that businesses should begin marketing to the 75 million who voted for Trump, urging them to stop “kowtowing to the radicals and to the ones who are …

Reuters reports: Former White House senior adviser Jared Kushner and his deputy, Avi Berkowitz, were nominated by a friendly attorney on Sunday for the Nobel Peace Prize for their role in negotiating four normalization deals between Israel and Arab nations known as the “Abraham Accords.” The deals were announced in a four-month span between mid-August and mid-December and were the …

STAT News reports: Top Trump officials actively lobbied Congress to deny state governments any extra funding for the Covid-19 vaccine rollout last fall — despite frantic warnings from state officials that they didn’t have the money they needed to ramp up a massive vaccination operation. The push, described to STAT by congressional aides in both parties and openly acknowledged by …

The Virgin Islands Free Press reports: The now-former vice president could have gone anywhere. But to get away and just feel safe, Mike Pence — who left office eight days ago — chose St. Croix. News that the 2016 and 2020 running mate of Donald Trump was in the territory came less than a day after MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough said …

Politico reports: Tainted by Trump’s reputation, several Trump aides described an increasingly bleak job market with virtually no chance of landing jobs in corporate America and some even having seen promising leads disappear after the rampage at the U.S. Capitol. A second former White House official said they knew of “people who got jobs rescinded because of Jan. 6.” A …

The Hill reports: Former White House coronavirus coordinator Deborah Birx said in an interview aired Sunday that there were “definitely” people within the White House who believed the virus to be a hoax. “There were people in the White House … who definitely believed that this was a hoax,” Birx told CBS’ Margaret Brennan. Asked how such conspiracy theories emerged …

The Las Vegas Journal-Review reports: A Nevada man has been charged with fraudulently obtaining nearly $2 million in federal Paycheck Protection Program money, meant for struggling small businesses, to purchase luxury cars and two luxury condominiums in Las Vegas. Federal prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney’s office in Nevada said, in an unsealed criminal complaint that charges Jorge Abramovs with one …

CBS News reports: Dr. Deborah Birx, the former coordinator of the Trump White House’s Coronavirus Task Force, says nothing in her four decades of public service prepared her for the chaotic Trump White House or the politically charged handling of the pandemic, telling “Face the Nation” she “always” considered quitting her post. In an interview to air on Sunday’s “Face …

Fox News reports: A long list of authors and other publishing professionals are calling on their industry to effectively refuse book deals with anyone who worked in former President Trump’s administration. “As members of the writing and publishing community of the United States, we affirm that participation in the administration of Donald Trump must be considered a uniquely mitigating criterion …

CNN reports: In the immediate hours following Biden being sworn into office on Wednesday, sources with direct knowledge of the new administration’s Covid-related work told CNN one of the biggest shocks that the Biden team had to digest during the transition period was what they saw as a complete lack of a vaccine distribution strategy under former President Donald Trump, …

Via press release from the White House: Be passionate in everything you do but always remember that violence is never the answer and will never be justified. When I came to the White House, I reflected on the responsibility I have always felt as a mother to encourage, give strength, and teach values of kindness. It is our duty as …

CNN reports: Melania Trump will become the first modern first lady not to invite the woman who will replace her to the White House for a walk-through of the private living quarters on the second and third floors. From Bess Truman and Mamie Eisenhower’s meeting, to the visit Laura Bush hosted where Jenna and Barbara Bush showed Sasha and Malia …

The Washington Post reports: Five prominent anti-vaccine organizations that have been known to spread misleading information about the coronavirus received more than $850,000 in loans from the federal Paycheck Protection Program, raising questions about why the government is giving money to groups actively opposing its agenda and seeking to undermine public health during a critical period. The groups that received …

The Huffington Post reports: Vice President Mike Pence on Sunday tried to brag about one of the supposed military accomplishments of President Donald Trump. It didn’t go well. Pence boasted that the Trump administration didn’t get in any new wars. But as Pence’s critics quickly pointed out, the Trump administration is currently in a losing battle with the coronavirus, which …