'More people may die'

President-elect Joe Biden is warning that the coronavirus pandemic could have devastating consequences if President Trump does not begin to engage in a smooth transition of power. Following a speech on his economic plan in Wilmington, Del., yesterday, Biden emphasized the need for his team to gain access to the Trump team's plan for vaccine distribution. "A vaccine is important. It's of little use until you are vaccinated. So how do we get the vaccine, how do we get over 300 million Americans vaccinated? What is the game plan? It is a huge undertaking to get it done," Biden said. "If we have to wait until Jan. 20 to start that planning, it puts us behind over a month, month and a half. And so, it's important that it be done, that there be coordination now." —The Hill

• — "It's almost like passing a baton in a race." Public health officials and lawmakers are also urging the president to begin the transfer of power to Biden, warning that continuing to waylay the process amid a spiking pandemic could endanger American lives. "You want to just essentially keep going—and that is what transition is, so it certainly would make things [go] more smoothly if we could do that," said Dr. Anthony Fauci on Sunday. —Politico
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• — Atlas shrugged. As states across the country ramp up their mitigation efforts, a tweet posted over the weekend by Scott Atlas—one of Trump's top coronavirus advisers and a proponent of the controversial "herd immunity" approach—urged people in Michigan to "rise up" against new restrictions aimed at slowing the disease's deadly surge. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, recently the target of a foiled kidnapping plot, says she was stunned by the tweet. —Politico
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• — More good news on the vaccine front. Moderna said yesterday that initial data from a late-stage clinical trial indicate that its COVID-19 vaccine is nearly a remarkable 95% effective at preventing infections. The biotech says it hopes to seek emergency use of the experimental vaccine for some people "in the coming weeks" and expects to have about 20 million doses to ship in the U.S. by year's end. —The Boston Globe

A very slow transition

While President-elect Joe Biden is eager to begin the transition, President Trump is still holding out hope that court battles and recounts might change the election result. It's not likely to happen in Georgia. The state's by-hand recount, expected to be concluded by tomorrow, found one discrepancy thus far—the discovery of 2,524 previously uncounted votes in Floyd Co., which decreased Biden's winning margin by 778 votes, from 14,155 to 13,377—but the recount is not expected to change the state's overall result. Trump's had a little help though. Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said yesterday that South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham asked him whether he had the power to reject certain absentee ballots, a question he interpreted as a suggestion to toss out legally cast votes. Ugh. —NBC News

• — "It looks like it will be President Biden." While some Republicans are shrugging off Trump's ridiculous assertions about the election, others are inching ever so slightly toward acceptance of reality. Trump's National Security Advisor Robert O'Brien, noting that it appears Biden won despite Trump's refusal to concede, said yesterday that his office will facilitate a "very professional transition" between administrations. —Forbes
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• — GSA official may be cracking too. Emily Murphy, head of the General Services Administration, who is blocking Biden's transition team from accessing government resources ahead of his inauguration, appears to be looking for a new job. Murphy recently sent a message to an associate inquiring about employment opportunities in 2021, a move that some in Washington have interpreted as at least tacitly acknowledging that the current administration soon will be gone. —ABC News
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• — "Disturbing and disheartening." An official at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services ordered staffers not to communicate with Biden's transition team until a Trump appointee "deems the results 'clear'" and recognizes the winner. A USCIS employee, speaking on condition of anonymity, said, "These delays could hamper the new administration's ability to hit the ground running on important issues facing the agency and our country." —BuzzFeed News

MORE: How Biden's team seeks to mitigate the impact of a delayed transition —Government Executive

Lane: Polling reflects democracy's health—or sickness

"Reliable public opinion polling is necessary to, and characteristic of, a healthy democracy. Accurate information about voter sentiment renders society intelligible to elected leaders, and leaders responsive to society. When citizens trust one another, and institutions, they feel safe answering questions about politics, even from people they do not know personally—and even when it offers them no tangible personal benefit. ... [But] social trust, once high, may be breaking down in the U.S. as polarization grows. Majorities tell pollsters they do not trust fellow citizens to cast informed votes or behave civilly toward those with whom they disagree." —Charles Lane in The Washington Post

Charles Lane is a writer and columnist specializing in economic and fiscal policy.

MORE: A former right-wing media creator on how a 'different reality' became so prominent —The New York Times

Report: Hate crimes at highest level since 2008

Hate crimes in the U.S. rose to the highest level in more than a decade in 2019, and federal officials also recorded the highest number of hate-motivated killings since the FBI began collecting that data in the early 1990s. According to an FBI report released yesterday, there were 7,314 hate crimes last year, up from 7,120 the year before—and approaching the high-water mark of 7,783, set in 2008. 

• — The FBI's annual report defines hate crimes as those motivated by bias based on a person's religion, race, or sexual orientation, among other categories. There was a nearly 7% increase in religion-based hate crimes, with 953 reports of crimes targeting Jews and Jewish institutions last year, up from 835 the year before. 
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• — There were 51 total hate-crime murders in 2019, which includes 22 people who were killed in a shooting at a Walmart in the border city of El Paso, Tex. The suspect in that shooting was attempting to scare Hispanics into leaving the country. Anti-Hispanic hate crimes in general rose to 527 in 2019, from 485 in 2018.
   
• — Hate crimes based on a person's sexual orientation stayed relatively stable, with one fewer crime reported last year than the year before. The FBI also said the number of hate crimes against African-Americans dropped slightly to 1,930, from 1,943. —Associated Press

Andelman: No time to let our guard down

"Now, the U.S. focus on Trump's refusal to concede the election, and Biden being sidelined from national security briefings, could encourage anti-U.S. forces inclined to profit from any perception of American weakness or hesitation. The costs of pulling U.S. troops out of volatile regions prematurely could drag the U.S. back into war all over again. This would be a horrific burden on the Biden Administration, especially given the coronavirus pandemic and its economic fallout." —David Andelman on CNN

David Andelman is the executive director of The Red Lines Project and the author of "A Red Line in the Sand: Diplomacy, Strategy, and the History of Wars That Could Still Happen."

MORE: US announces further drawdown of troops in Afghanistan and Iraq before Biden takes office —CNN

A lame-duck attack on Iran?

President Trump reportedly asked senior advisers at an Oval Office meeting on Thursday whether he had options to take action against Iran's main nuclear site in the coming weeks. The meeting occurred a day after international inspectors reported a significant increase in the country's stockpile of nuclear material.

• — A range of senior advisers dissuaded the president from moving ahead with a military strike. Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, acting Defense Sec. Christopher Miller, and Joint Chiefs Chair Mark Milley warned that a strike against Iran's facilities could easily escalate into a broader conflict in the last weeks of Trump's presidency.
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• — Iran's uranium stockpile in Natanz is now 12 times larger than permitted under the nuclear accord that Trump abandoned in 2018, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency. Any strike, whether by missile or cyber, would likely be focused on that site.
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• — Since Trump dismissed Defense Sec. Mark Esper and other top Pentagon aides last week, Defense Department and other national security officials have expressed concerns that the president might initiate operations, whether overt or secret, against Iran or other adversaries at the end of his term. —The New York Times

Wehner: Seek repair, not revenge

"In our politics today, all of us need to do better at forgiving each other and giving more people the benefit of the doubt. We need to listen better than we do to the stories and experiences that shape the views of those with whom we disagree. And we need to strive for social peace, which is the product of forbearance, for the good of the whole. ... I think we must remain committed to justice, standing up for truth, and calling out evil where we find it. We should fight the worst elements of Trumpism that remain even after he leaves office. But in the process, we must not get sucked into a vortex of hate or treat our opponents as subhuman, unworthy of respect, or beyond redemption." —Peter Wehner in The Atlantic 

Peter Wehner is a former speechwriter for the administrations of three U.S. presidents. He is a vice president and senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, a conservative think tank.

MORE: Why Obama fears for our democracy —The Atlantic

"We all know Joe Biden won. Some are playing dumb, grabbing at straws. Biden is still not getting intel briefings or a seamless transition, all in the midst of a pandemic. Trump will go down in history as a shameful figure in America...so will those complicit in enabling him now." —Ana Navarro-Cardenas, Republican political strategist (@ananavarro)

When I read about the "Million MAGA March," with people carrying signs that said, "Arrest Fauci," it broke my heart and saddened me at the absolute ignorance in that statement. I wrote earlier this year that I spent 15 days in January in the ICU with COVID-19...something my doctors didn't know about, but the man in the Oval Office (refusing to concede the election) DID know about. WHY are people vilifying Dr. Fauci? It's beyond my comprehension. Just as it's beyond my comprehension that those same people are praising the racist Kyle Rittenhouse, and that so-called Christians support the "Proud Boys."

All this hate and anger hurts my heart; and the sad thing is, it starts with the "man" in charge. The damage done to my lungs and the resulting pain and fatigue from COVID-19 isn't as painful and exhausting as living out these last few months with the Complainer-in-Chief. —Sharon C., Michigan

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