Will Trump fire another FBI director?

Bill Barr wasn't the only administration official on President Trump's naughty list this year. Trump has reportedly come so close to firing FBI Director Christopher Wray in recent months that the White House counsel's office stepped in to "strongly" warn him not to do so because it could put him in potential legal jeopardy. Trump's infamous firing of former FBI Director James Comey in 2017 was widely viewed as an attempt to obstruct justice in the investigation of Russia's interference in the 2016 presidential election.

• — The lawyers, led by White House counsel Pat Cipollone, were concerned that firing Wray could be seen as retaliation because the president has publicly pressured him to take specific actions on certain investigations—such as announcing a probe into President-elect Joe Biden's son Hunter—and then expressed frustration that Wray has not followed his suggestions.
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• — It's unclear how Trump's complaints that Wray hasn't done anything to investigate Hunter Biden might affect his job given the announcement last week that the FBI has already been conducting such an investigation since 2018. Trump had criticized Barr for not publicly disclosing that investigation before the election and also for publicly declaring that the DOJ has found no evidence of widespread election fraud.
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• — Trump recently threatened to fire acting Homeland Security Sec. Chad Wolf as well. The president blamed Wolf for public statements made by Christopher Krebs, the former head of the agency in charge of election security at the DHS. Krebs has called the 2020 election "the most secure in American history." —NBC News

Krebs: The fight against disinfo must go on

"In order to maintain American resiliency, Congress and the incoming administration must continue to reinvent, fortify, and fund the American defense on the battlefield of disinformation through both centralized and regionalized interagency cooperation. Rumor Control was part of CISA's collaboration with the FBI, and I urge the transition team and the FBI leadership to expand this program in order to remain resilient against increasingly aggressive threats from foreign state actors and private domestic interests." —Christopher Krebs on CNN

Christopher Krebs is the former director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

MORE: Tackling disinformation is national security issue says former NSA general counsel —CBS News

Buttigieg nominated for Biden Cabinet

President-elect Joe Biden has formally announced his pick of Pete Buttigieg to lead the Transportation Department. "Pete's going to help build back better with jobs and hope with vision and execution," Biden said at an event in Wilmington, Del., this morning. "We selected Pete for Transportation because the department is at the intersection of some of our most ambitious plans."

• — The appointment is spurring optimism for a major infrastructure program, a popular legislative goal that has run into funding roadblocks and political dysfunction for years. If confirmed, Buttigieg would take over an agency with a nearly $90 billion budget and the lead in convincing Congress to approve a large enough package to fulfill Biden's campaign pledges.
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• — Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Ind., said his experience in that Midwestern city showed him the importance of transportation in a community's well-being. "America has given this administration a mandate to build back better," Buttigieg said. "Step one of building back better is literally to build."
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• — In other appointments, Jennifer Granholm has reportedly been tapped to run the Department of Energy. Granholm served two terms as governor of Michigan. In November, she penned an op-ed calling for Michigan’s auto industry to invest in a low-carbon economy. —Bloomberg

GOP turns up heat on Swalwell

Top Republicans are calling for Rep. Eric Swalwell to be removed from the House Intelligence Committee following reports that he was allegedly targeted by a woman believed to be a Chinese spy. In a letter sent yesterday to Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the lawmakers, including House Minority Whip Steve Scalise and House Republican Conference Chair Liz Cheney, said Swalwell's contacts posed a national security risk.

• — Swalwell had been targeted by an alleged Chinese Ministry of State Security operative named Christine Fang, who, according to reports, helped Swalwell’s fundraising during his 2014 re-election campaign. She also helped place an unpaid intern inside his office. Fang left the country in 2015 during the FBI investigation into her activities.
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  — The Republicans drew a parallel to Democratic calls for former Attorney General Jeff Sessions to resign after he met with a Russian ambassador without alerting Congress four years ago. The lawmakers said that Swalwell should be held to the same standard as Sessions, arguing that his interactions with the Chinese agent "were more dangerous."
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• — Retiring Rep. Pete King, who previously sat on the Intelligence Committee, wrote in an op-ed, "I will accept Swalwell’s claim that he ended all involvement with Fang after he was informed by the FBI that she was a spy. Nevertheless, the fact remains that he was compromised and made susceptible to blackmail by the Chinese, who could threaten him with the disclosure of his involvement with their alleged agent." —The Hill

Mello: Pushing back on Brazil's toxic populism

"[Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro's] professed admiration of Trump is not just for convenience—it stems from shared beliefs and values. ... If the incoming Biden Administration only wishes to placate activists within the Democratic Party, naming and shaming Brazil as a 'climate outlaw' or denouncing it for democratic backsliding might be good politics. But if the U.S. is genuinely interested in pushing back against right-wing populism in Brazil, a better approach would be to work with the many actors within the country who have a genuine interest in improving the situation." —Eduardo Mello in World Politics Review

Eduardo Mello is assistant professor of politics and international studies at the Getulio Varas Foundation in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

MORE: In Brazil, law students targeted disinformation—then faced backlash —NBC News

How QAnon has hijacked the national conversation

The influence of QAnon swelled this year despite the ludicrous belief at the conspiracy theory's core: that Donald Trump is fighting a cabal of Satan-worshiping elites that engages in pedophilia and child sacrifice. Though it's easy to dismiss QAnon as a fringe cult, the nebulous group is frequently the architect of messages that, through coordinated behavior, make their way to the most powerful factions of the Republican Party.

• — "QAnon is a disinformation network (that) has grown like a virus to attack the pillars of our democracy—systematically with specific forms of disinformation that are strategic," said Joel Finkelstein, cofounder of the Network Contagion Research Institute, which tracks misinformation across social media channels and has just released a report on QAnon.
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• — A previous report from Tufts University found that about 1 in 6 American adults trusts QAnon as a reliable source at least some of the time. Though most Americans still haven't heard of QAnon—and even among those who view it favorably, only 38% buy into its core beliefs—elements have leaked into the mainstream, with help from some celebrities, several Republican lawmakers, and the president himself.
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• — Rep. Denver Riggleman, a former Air Force intelligence officer who also has worked as a contractor for the National Security Administration, says he recognizes in QAnon messaging the distinct "language of radicalization." One of the GOP's harshest critics of the movement, Riggleman, whose term ends in January, warns, "This is very dangerous. I think we're on a bit of a knife's edge right now." —CNN

Otis: The election is over. Reforms remain

"[W]hile the election has been settled—and most recently affirmed by the Electoral College on Monday—our divisions remain intense. We are a polarized nation of red and blue. We are cleaved along geographic, generational, racial, and education lines. Our political and cultural identities have become one. History shows us that these are the dangerous fault lines that tear many nations apart for good. ... We have an urgent need for structural reforms that might change the electoral incentives that help us repair the dysfunction and mistrust that grip our politics." —Deb Otis in The Fulcrum

Deb Otis is a senior research analyst at FairVote, a non-partisan electoral reform group that promotes ranked-choice voting.

MORE: Ex-Texas cop arrested for violent attempt to prove election conspiracy was hired by GOP activist group —The Texas Tribune

I'm ready to leave the Republican Party. I'm aghast and ashamed at what's happened in the post-election maneuvers. And I don't see a correction coming soon for the party. So yes, give me your alternative to the Republican Party just as soon as the time is right. —Kim C., Oregon

I'm simply an American citizen that has left the Republican Party and am now a moderate Independent that is thankful for the Biden/Harris win. Other than a news piece I saw that indicated that the Russian press is pressuring Putin to offer Trump asylum once he leaves office, and the Russian interaction, which has been denied, of course, by Trump, my gut is telling me that Trump has a Russian tutor to guide him in this attempted destruction of our democracy. Trump isn't really that smart to attempt this on his own. —Kerry S., California

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