The outgoing president’s antics consume attention that should be focused on the raging pandemic, while President-elect Biden looks to make progress on climate change, immigration, student debt, and other issues. Then Democratic strategist Chuck Rocha talks to Jon Favreau about how the party can improve its performance among Latino voters.

Show Notes

Pandemic without a President

• Vox: Trump finally admitted that Biden won the election — then immediately walked it back
• WaPo: Trump tunes out pandemic surge as he focuses on denying election loss
• WaPo: ‘Time will tell’: Trump seems to acknowledge, fleetingly, that his term is ending
• NYT: Biden Implores Trump to Confront a Surging Pandemic
• Navigator: Public Opinion on The Vote: Navigator Post-Election Findings
• NYT: Trump Rebuffs Biden Transition Team, Setting Off Virus and National Security Risks
• WaPo: Biden finds support among Republicans as Trump scrambles to salvage his strategy to contest the election
• The Guardian: US records 166,000 new Covid cases as states implement new restrictions
• NYT: The U.S. surpasses 11 million infections; Blacks and Latinos still shoulder an outsize share.
• WSJ: Trump, Biden Medical Experts Urge Public to Help Stop Covid-19 Spread
• The Atlantic: It’s Time to Hunker Down
• The Atlantic: ‘No One Is Listening to Us’
• The New Republic: Republican Malice Has Turned the Pandemic Into a Deadly Loop
• ProPublica: The Enraging Deja Vu of a Third Coronavirus Wave
• Politico: Health officials sound alarm over impact of Trump’s transition blockade
• The Guardian: Trump faces growing pressure to start transition as Covid surges across US
• NYT: Trump’s coronavirus team is blocked from working with Biden’s — and that’s a problem, Fauci says
• CNN: Biden team seeks Covid-19 back-channels with transition locked out
• NBC News: Left out of Covid-19 vaccine planning, Biden advisers developing their own distribution strategy
• NPR: U.S. Surgeon General Blames ‘Pandemic Fatigue’ For Recent COVID-19 Surge
• NYT: As the Coronavirus Surges, a New Culprit Emerges: Pandemic Fatigue
• WSJ: Pandemic Fatigue Is Real—And It’s Spreading
• NBC News: As Covid cases soar, GOP state lawmakers keep fighting to limit governors’ power to respond
• AP: Biden faces tough choice of whether to back virus lockdowns
• NPR: Many Places Hard Hit By COVID-19 Leaned More Toward Trump In 2020 Than 2016
• Pew Research: Public opinion about coronavirus is more politically divided in U.S. than in other advanced economies
• Politico: Congress deadlocked on stimulus as lame duck begins
• CNN: McConnell rejects Dem demand for big Covid relief package, stands by push for ‘highly targeted’ bill
• CNBC: Democrats and Republicans are still far apart on economic stimulus deal as coronavirus infections surge
• CNN: Prospects for a stimulus deal fading in the lame duck
• WaPo: Lame-duck Congress and lame-duck president face huge challenges in coming weeks

The Biden Transition 

• NYT: Biden’s Policy Agenda Rests Heavily on Senate Outcome
• Politico: ‘A dreaded two years’: Biden, allies gear up to face a GOP Senate
• The Guardian: What a Republican Senate really means for the climate
• Vox: How Joe Biden plans to use executive powers to fight climate change
• WaPo: A Biden victory positions America for a 180-degree turn on climate change
• Quartz: How Biden can fix America’s climate credibility
• Gizmodo: How a Biden Administration Could Fight Climate Change Without the Senate
• Vox: The next president can force the financial sector to take climate change seriously
• The Guardian: Tall order for Biden to fix immigration system after four years of Trump
• CBS News: Biden plans sweeping reversal of Trump’s immigration agenda, from deportations to asylum policy
• NYT: 9 Ways Biden Could Change America in January
• Roll Call: Immigration changes to take time under Biden, experts say
• NYT: Biden Faces Early Test With Immigration and Homeland Security After Trump
• WaPo: Elizabeth Warren: What a Biden-Harris administration should prioritize on its first day
• Politico: Trump’s student loan cliff threatens chaos for Biden
• NYT: What Biden’s Election Could Mean for Student Loans
• NYT: 9 Ways Biden Could Change America in January
• NBC News: How the Trump administration’s ‘midnight rule-making’ could leave a big mark on government 
• Politico: Schumer ‘not on the ballot’ in Georgia Senate race, Democratic candidate says
• Politico: Health care vs. ‘radical leftists’: Parties re-running 2020 playbooks in Georgia runoffs
• WaPo: Trump’s refusal to concede creates tricky messaging issue for Ga. Republicans
• NBC News: ‘We are the firewall’: Loeffler and Perdue form GOP unity ticket in Georgia Senate races
• CNN: Loeffler unleashes onslaught against Warnock in Georgia race for Senate control
• WaPo: The Trailer: The double feature in Georgia
• AJC: Health care center stage for Senate runoffs
• CNN: Democrats try to learn from mistakes in US Senate races in Georgia
• AP: Dems, GOP take different approaches on Georgia Senate blitz