Wednesday News: “Trump’s false election fraud claims face a dead end in Congress”; With GA Wins, Dems on “Verge of a Trifecta”; Thank You Stacey Abrams!; “Trump’s Parting Gift: GOP Civil War”; “Virginia’s sluggish vaccine rollout needs explanation”

by Lowell

Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Wednesday, January 6.

• North Korea: Kim Jong-un says economic plan a near-total failure at rare political meeting
• Hong Kong Police Arrest Dozens of Pro-Democracy Leaders
• Hacking ‘Likely’ Came From Russia, U.S. Says in Belated Official Statement on Major Intrusion
• Europe Faces Recession Risk as Covid-19 Infections Stay High
• Breach of air traffic control sends chilling threat as revenge for killing of Iranian general (“Multiple air traffic controllers in New York heard a chilling threat Monday in audio obtained exclusively by CBS News: ‘We are flying a plane into the Capitol on Wednesday. Solemani will be avenged.'”)
• Joe Biden’s Democrats Are On The Verge Of A Trifecta. What’s Next?
• Trump’s false election fraud claims face a dead end in Congress
• Mike Pence Put His Soul on Layaway and the Devil Has Come to Collect
• Five themes to watch during Electoral College battle
• Pence Said to Have Told Trump He Lacks Power to Change Election Result
• Trump privately admits it’s over, but wants to brawl for attention
• After years of fealty, Pence prepares for a final performance likely to anger Trump
• Congress set to begin certification of Biden election win — Trump allies will try to block (Let’s just be 100% clear: anyone who tries to reverse Biden’s victory in a free-and-fair election is a seditionist and should be treated accordingly.)
• My Republican colleagues’ ploy threatens the future of the electoral college
• Trump and His Heirs Dream of Endless Victory (“By falsely insisting that he won, the defeated president leaves a blueprint for the GOP’s future.”)
• Democrats Take First Georgia Senate Seat With Control Hanging in Balance
• Warnock defeats Loeffler in Georgia, keeping alive Democrats’ hopes of taking Senate, NBC News projects
• Warnock win puts Democrats on the brink of Senate control
• Democrats win the Senate — by the slimmest margin possible (“Democrats will hold the edge with a split Senate, giving them a shot at governing.”)
• Georgia runoffs power a Democratic comeback: Last election of Trump era may lock GOP out of power (“One of Donald Trump’s final legacies in office appears to be leading the Republican Party to defeat in Georgia”)
• 5 winners and 2 losers from the Georgia Senate elections (“Democrats’ double victory will fundamentally change the next two years of American politics.”)
• GOP Georgia election official: Blame Trump if Perdue or Loeffler loses
• Election Needles: Georgia U.S. Senate Runoff
• Warnock makes history in winning Georgia runoff, CNN projects, as control of Senate down to Perdue-Ossoff race (“He will be Georgia’s first Black senator. The Ossoff-Perdue race will decide the Senate”)
• This Isn’t Just Political Theater (“The president’s threats aren’t performative—they’re all too real.”)
• The Memo: Georgia voters deliver blow to Trump
• Loeffler’s projected defeat in Georgia Senate election highlights failed Republican strategy (“The GOP thought it found a winning formula — women who could appeal to both Trump’s base and suburbanites. It didn’t work.”)
• George W. Bush to Attend Biden’s Inauguration in Signal of Unity
• Republicans turn on Trump after Georgia loss (“Fissures are forming as Republicans decide whether it’s useful to cling to Trump — even as he tries to subvert an election — or to distance themselves.”)
• Trump’s Parting Gift: GOP Civil War (“Trump is toying with the idea of attending Joe Biden’s inauguration, as an adviser admits a last-ditch effort to challenge the election results has almost no chance of succeeding. Still, for 2024 Republican hopefuls, says one strategist, ‘it’s the first primary.'”)
• Trumpism Is Entwined With Republicanism Way Down
• Scoop: Sen. Tim Scott will vote to certify Biden’s Electoral College win
• Here’s what should happen to the GOP (“It is time for patriots to separate from the radical authoritarians.”)
• Just imagine if Republicans had done this 11 months ago (“They could have avoided a constitutional crackup.”)
• Pro-Trump forums erupt with violent threats ahead of Wednesday’s rally against the 2020 election
• Violent threats ripple through far-right internet forums ahead of protest
• A really bad day for the ‘Sedition Caucus’ (“The ‘Dirty Dozen’ take a beating.”)
• ‘Pinocchio’ Pompeo is trying to rewrite the history of the past four years
• Justice Dept. Seeks to Pare Back Civil Rights Protections for Minorities (A Dem-controlled U.S. Senate needs to massively strengthen civil rights, voting rights, etc.)
• Christie sworn into FERC, bringing commission to 5
• Why Biden is quiet about the Electoral College challenge
• Pennsylvania G.O.P. refuses to seat Democratic lawmaker in State Legislature. (Totally unacceptable.)
• ‘A dangerous time’: Another ugly GOP power play unfolds in Pennsylvania
• GOP senators remove Lt. Gov. Fetterman from running first day of new session
• Police: Protesters outside Sen. Hawley home were ‘peaceful’
• Protesters targeting the homes of politicians are crossing the line — and possibly the law
• Hawley isn’t impressing Trump voters. He’s entertaining them with his humiliation. (Hawley is a disgrace to America and to humanity.)
• Lawyer on Trump Election Call Quits Firm After Uproar
• Kim Kardashian and Kanye West are getting a divorce: ‘She’s done’
• Saying Goodbye to the GOP (“The present day Republican Party is a party where a majority believe in crackpot conspiracy theories such as QAnon. The present day Republican Party openly embraces seditious tactics to satisfy a deranged base and an authoritative President in Donald J. Trump whose only goal is to stay in power.”)
• Virginia U.S. attorney close to Bill Barr stepping down (“U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia G. Zachary Terwilliger is moving to a private white-collar defense firm starting Jan. 15, a few days before Democrat Joe Biden is set to be sworn in as the next president of the United States. ‘Elections have consequences,’ Terwilliger said Monday. ‘I’d rather go out . . . on my terms.'”)
• Jacob Blake Shooting: No Charges Against Officer in Kenosha, Wisconsin (This really gets old.)
• Video: Sen. Mark Warner Predicts “Close to 80 Senators” Will Vote to Certify Biden/Harris’ Victory, But “it will probably be a wild next 72 hours” (Warner says he hopes VP Pence shows up, “it’s his constitutional duty”; says this entire “spectacle” is a big “propaganda” win for Putin, N. Korea, China, etc.)
• Virginia Crime Commission endorses getting rid of all mandatory minimum sentences
• Tuesday (1/5) Virginia Data on COVID-19 Finds +4,337 Confirmed/Probable Cases (to 371,913), +139 Hospitalizations (to 18,526), +59 Deaths (to 5,191) (Hospitalizations hit new record high, as do 10-day cumulative new COVID-19 cases)
• Editorial: Virginia’s sluggish vaccine rollout needs explanation
• Gov. Northam no longer announcing push to have Virginia students back in schools in Wednesday update
• Northam to hold coronavirus briefing on Wednesday, first in nearly a month (It’s been wayyyy too long.)
• Chaz Nuttycombe’s Initial 2021 Virginia Forecasts: Gov/LG/AG “Lean D”; House of Delegates Under Current Lines “Pure Toss-Up”
• AG Mark Herring Launches Office of Civil Rights Within Attorney General’s Office (“Herring is also proposing legislation to make Office a permanent part of the Office of Attorney General”)
• “Political activists have been automatically excluded from the Redistricting Commission but political fatcats are hunky-dory?” (“Senate Republicans have nominated Marvin W. Gilliam, a coal boss [and major VA GOP donor] from Bristol”)
• Chesapeake Bay health remains poor, says latest State of the Bay report (“Two years after its last assessment of the Chesapeake Bay’s health, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation has found little overall improvement in the nation’s largest estuary, despite reductions in nitrogen and phosphorus pollution and the shrinking of the bay’s dead zone, an oxygen-deprived area where species are unable to survive.”)
• Pandemic Slowed Push for Paid Sick Leave in Virginia
• Virginia HD02 and HD90 Special Elections: Results [UPDATE Democrats Sweep!]
• Virginia Democrats keep 10-seat majority in House of Delegates with Tuesday’s victories
• Virginia voters elect Democrats to fill two vacant delegate seats in special elections
• Norfolk Democrat Angelia Williams Graves wins special election for Virginia House of Delegates’ 90th District
• King wins Virginia House of Delegates District 2 race by thin margin
• Democrats win two special Virginia House elections
• ACP Developers Outline Plans for Rolling Back Work on Pipeline Project
• Waters remain muddy for Mountain Valley Pipeline’s stream crossings (“Virginia is proposing new regulations, although it’s unclear whether they will affect the 6-year-old pipeline project.”)
• Loudoun Delegate Dave LaRock (R) in Trouble With The Law…Again
• Richmond Residents, Activists Question Stoney’s Second Term Promises (“Yesterday, Levar Stoney began his second term as mayor of Richmond.”)
• Editorial: After a turbulent 2020, Stoney’s primary task is to turn protest into progress
• Richmond’s Top Public Health Official Backs Paid Sick Leave
• Henrico elementary schools’ return to in-person learning delayed by two weeks
• Virginia Beach Superintendent changes course, pushes for students to return to school
• Williams: Rodney Robinson’s tweet was foolish and destructive, but this former Teacher of the Year can’t allow it to get in the way of his work.
• Richmond and Henrico release next tier vaccine plan as 1 in 6 Virginians are testing positive for COVID-19
• Newport News schools delays reopening as districts near tipping point
• Sunny with a chilly breeze today; watching two storm systems through early next week