Stop the Flynnsanity

At the White House on Friday, President Trump held what may have been his most deranged meeting yet. In it, the president reportedly raged at loyalists for betraying him, and discussed taking extralegal measures to overturn the presidential election he recently lost (and lost and lost...). The meeting included lawyer and conspiracy theorist Sidney Powell, former National Security Advisor (and convicted felon) Michael Flynn, and Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani. In a sign of just how crazy it was, Giuliani served as the de facto voice of reason.

• — Next moves? With their options for overturning the election narrowing, Trump reportedly brought up a proposal Flynn has floated on cable news—to impose martial law and direct the military to hold a new election. The group also discussed a plan in which Trump would appoint Powell as a "special counsel" overseeing allegations of voter fraud. Powell has been widely criticized for her fantastical voter fraud claims. —New York Magazine
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• — Sorry, Sidney. Outgoing Attorney General Bill Barr says he will not appoint a special counsel on potential election fraud. At his final press conference today as AG, Barr also said there is no reason to appoint a special counsel to investigate President-elect Joe Biden's son Hunter's financial dealings, as the case is already "being handled responsibly and professionally." —Associated Press
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• — Still not done with SCOTUS. Despite a distinct lack of success in the courts to overturn the results of the election, the Trump campaign announced yesterday that it has filed a new petition with the U.S. Supreme Court. The petition seeks to reverse a trio of Pennsylvania Supreme Court cases related to mail-in ballots and asks the court to reject voters' will and allow the Pennsylvania General Assembly to pick its own slate of electors. —Politico

Levine: What's next for voting rights?

"If Democrats do take full control [of Congress], they are likely to move sweeping voting reforms, including requiring automatic voter registration across the country and restoring the full protections of the Voting Rights Act. But if Democrats fail to retake the Senate, Biden will be more limited in what he can do to fix voting rights. The U.S. Constitution gives the president almost no power over elections, instead entrusting that authority to state legislatures and Congress. Nonetheless, there are a few key areas where Biden could act unilaterally." —Sam Levine in The Guardian

Sam Levine is a voting rights reporter at The Guardian US.

MORE: Voting in the U.S. got easier in 2020. Will changes remain in next election? —The Wall Street Journal

Finally some relief from Congress

Congressional leaders yesterday finally reached a hard-fought agreement on a $900 billion stimulus package that will send immediate aid to Americans and businesses to help them cope with the economic devastation of the pandemic and fund the distribution of vaccines. The deal delivers the first significant infusion of federal dollars into the economy since April, as negotiators broke through months of partisan gridlock that had scuttled earlier talks, leaving millions of Americans and businesses without federal help as the pandemic raged. While the plan is roughly half the size of the $2.2 trillion stimulus law enacted in March, it remains one of the largest relief packages in modern history. It's about time. —The New York Times

• — Shhhhh! A new investigation reveals that White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows worked to hide when members of the White House staff had positive coronavirus tests. He attempted to hide his own diagnosis and told at least one other member of the White House team to keep quiet about being Covid-positive. Meadows also threatened to fire doctors from the White House Medical Unit if they reported information about growing numbers of coronavirus cases. —The Daily Beast
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• — New strain hits UK. A new, more transmissible variant of the coronavirus has prompted tighter restrictions in the UK, just ahead of the Christmas holiday. It's not clear whether the strain has made its way to the U.S. yet. However, even if it does become more widespread, Moncef Slaoui, chief scientific adviser for the government's vaccine acceleration program, says the vaccines that are now rolling out will provide protection against it. —Bloomberg
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• — Meanwhile in China... Wuhan, the original epicenter of the coronavirus, may have largely returned to normal life, but a tranche of secret Chinese government documents reveals what it was really like there in the early days of the pandemic. It may never be clear whether a freer flow of information from China would have prevented the global health calamity that ensued, but Chinese officials tried to steer the narrative not only to prevent panic and debunk falsehoods, but also to make the virus look less severe—and authorities more capable. —ProPublica

Newland: DOJ lawyers like me were complicit

"If, early on, the Justice Department lawyers charged with selling the administration's lies had emptied the ranks—withholding our talents and reputations and demanding the same of our professional peers—the work of defending President Trump's policies would have been left to the types of attorneys now representing his campaign. Lawyers like Mr. Giuliani would have had to defend the Muslim ban in court. Had that happened, judges would have likely dismantled the Trump facade from the beginning, stopping the momentum of his ugliest and most destructive efforts and bringing much-needed accountability early in his presidency." —Erica Newland in The New York Times

Erica Newland, counsel at Protect Democracy, worked in the Office of Legal Counsel at the Justice Department from 2016-18.

Gokhale: China gnaws at democracy's roots

"While democracies dither, China is silently undermining the roots of democracy throughout the world like a river systematically erodes the bank—until even the mightiest tree must fall. The Chinese authorities are fond of saying that they do not play zero-sum games, but Xi Jinping's self-declared historical mission for China to become the world's leading power by 2049 will remain incomplete unless its model supplants democracy as the leading idea in this century. Democracies can no longer afford to rest on their laurels." —Vijay Gokhale in Foreign Policy

Vijay Gokhale is a former foreign secretary of India and Indian ambassador to China.

MORE: Federal prosecutors accuse Zoom executive of working with Chinese government to surveil users and suppress video calls —The Washington Post

Trump's Russia 'blind spot'

In the understatement of the year, Sen. Mitt Romney said yesterday that President Trump has a "blind spot" when it comes to dealing with Russia. Romney was discussing Trump's response to the massive cyberattack on federal agencies that U.S. officials have widely attributed to Russia. It's just the latest example of Trump's deference to Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin.

• — Officials had drafted a statement to be released Friday formally accusing Moscow of carrying out the cyber intrusions in a months-long campaign, but they were blocked from doing so by the White House. The statement would have echoed a statement made by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that "we can say pretty clearly that it was the Russians that engaged in this activity."
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• — In a Twitter outburst on Saturday, Trump contradicted Pompeo, seeking to turn blame away from Moscow and suggesting that the true culprit "may be China (it may!)" He also downplayed the hack itself, tweeting, "The Cyber Hack is far greater in the Fake News Media than in actuality. I have been fully briefed and everything is well under control."
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• — Trump has repeatedly trusted the word of Putin over the assessments of U.S. intelligence agencies, including their conclusion that Russia waged a sophisticated campaign to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. He also failed to take punitive action against Russia for offering bounties to Taliban operatives for killing U.S. troops in Afghanistan. —The Washington Post

Harden: Championing democracy again

"[D]emocracy has been on its heels for the past four years. The Biden Administration should go big, with a long-term strategic vision of democratic power. An activist D20 would sharpen the distinction between political and economic models—and offer the world a choice between democratic, free-market nation states versus the Chinese or Russian models of autocracy and nationalized economies. With U.S. leadership, this collective of democratic states could project influential power and shape the global future while protecting the homeland for generations." —R. David Harden in The Hill

R. David Harden is managing director of the Georgetown Strategy Group and former assistant administrator at USAID's Bureau for Democracy, Conflict, and Humanitarian Assistance.

MORE: Scot Lehigh: Beware of authoritarianism and conspiratorialism, twin threats to our democracy —The Boston Globe

In recent days I've seen Evan McMullin, Bill Kristol, and other leading lights of NeverTrump conservatives suggest that the Republican Party may be beyond saving and that it's time to consider the formation of a new conservative-centrist party.

I actually came to this conclusion four years ago. The Republican Party structure and brand is corrupted beyond salvaging. It may seem unthinkable to some to consider an America with more than two major parties, or where the GOP has been replaced by something else. But history tells us that this isn't unthinkable at all. In fact, the Republican Party was born from the death of the Whig Party in the mid-19th century. The parallels are remarkable. The Whigs went with a candidate, Zachary Taylor, who was long on populist appeal and short on principles consistent with their platform...and within a few years, they had imploded as a party. Republicans took up the anti-slavery mantle just in time to elect Abraham Lincoln.

Our current two-party system has had a good long run, but nothing lasts forever. Change is not only possible, it's inevitable. —Vivian B., Texas

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