The End of an Error
Biden enters, Trump exits, Congress returns + Richard Burr gets off + Mark Meadows's failure + EPA dismisses PFAS petition + Raleigh’s free parking + Durham’s NDO
Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2021
Happy Inauguration Day!
On an unrelated note, your correspondent may or may not be doing the good kind of day-drinking right now. … Tomorrow is National Hugging Day, so hang in there. … Today’s newsletter is a 10-minute read. … Weather: Mostly sunny, high around 52. (WRAL)
Today’s Number: 35,064
Hours in the presidency of Donald John Trump.
On This Day
1841: China ceded Hong Kong to the British.
1854: Furnifold Simmons, a five-term U.S. senator from North Carolina and virulent white supremacist, was born.
1869: Elizabeth Cady Stanton became the first woman to testify before Congress.
1870: Hiram Revels, who was Black, was elected to fill the unexpired Senate term of Jefferson Davis, a traitor.
1920: The ACLU was founded.
1940: North Carolina’s first public school opened in Rockingham County.
1942: The Nazis organized the “final solution.”
1981: As Ronald Reagan was inaugurated, Iranians released the Tehran Embassy hostages.
2008: Breaking Bad premiered.
One Year Ago
Top story: “Democrats Seek More Evidence and Testimony for Impeachment Trial.”
Top 4 Google Search queries, Raleigh-Durham MSA, Jan. 20. 2020:
Martin Luther King Jr. Day
Jennifer Aniston + Brad Pitt: Pics of the exes at the SAG Awards ginned up internet speculation.
LGFCU: I’m not sure why the Local Government Federal Credit Union was trending.
+TODAY’S TOP 10
1. Biden Enters
At noon — 48 years, six Senate terms, and three presidential campaigns after he arrived in Washington as a 29-year-old widower — Joe Biden will become the oldest man to take the oath of office. It will be the pinnacle of a political career that has spanned Watergate, Iran Contra, the first Iraq War, 9/11, the Afghanistan War, the second Iraq War, the Great Recession, and now the COVID pandemic.
Biden will (probably) be the last boomer president. (See below.)
Vice President Kamala Harris will be the first woman, Black person, and person of Asian descent in that position. Depending on how you count, she might also be the first Gex X veep. Unless you throw her in with the boomers (born in 1964, she’s on the boomer/X edge), that is.
They’ll take office at a time of immense crisis — which, Biden knows, also means immense opportunity. But first, the Senate needs to confirm his Cabinet and deal with Donald Trump’s impeachment trial.
—> DAY ONE
Biden will cancel the Keystone XL Pipeline. Canada isn’t happy. (BBC, WCVB)
Rachel Levine, Biden’s pick to be the assistant health secretary, would be the first openly transgender person to serve in a Senate-confirmed role. (WaPo)
Fox News — which just laid off the political director who angered Trump by calling Arizona for Biden on election night — is telling viewers that liberals are going to send them to reeducation camps.
2. Trump Exits
This morning, Donald Trump will hold a “departure ceremony” at Andrews AFB on his way to Mar-a-Lago. He’ll be the first president in modern history to skip his successor’s swearing-in. It’s unclear how many of his guests will show up.
VP Pence, who’s going to the inauguration, had “scheduling conflicts.”
Republican congressional leaders are going to church with Biden.
Anthony Scaramucci passed, as did former chief of staff John Kelly.
Trump has yet to concede or speak to Biden since the election.
Trump posted a 20-minute farewell video yesterday in which he vowed not to go away.
“Now, as I prepare to hand power over to a new administration at noon on Wednesday, I want you to know that the movement we started is only just beginning.”
—> ON THE WAY OUT
Trump’s last-minute pardons include people who criminal justice reformers have been pushing for years. (NYT)
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that multiculturalism distorts “what this country is all about.” (Twitter)
Following Biden’s lead, Pompeo also determined that China is committing genocide against the Uighurs, which could lead to sanctions. (NYT)
In a Marist poll, only 39% of Trump voters said they would get a COVID vaccine. In a WaPo/ABC poll, half of Republicans think the pandemic, which is killing upward of 4,000 people a day, is at least somewhat under control. (Twitter, WaPo)
The Trump administration handed out $850,000 in PPP funds to anti-vax groups. (WaPo)
A federal appeals court struck down Trump’s attempt to weaken regulations on coal-burning power plants. (NYT)
The Trump administration issued a new rule that will make it easier for the government to remove scientists. (NYT)
—> WHAT TRUMP LEAVES BEHIND
A Monmouth University panel study found that more than 40% of Trump voters scored at the highest level of right-wing authoritarianism.
“High RWAs (93%) are more likely than other Trump voters (62%) to believe that a secretive Deep State has definitely been trying to hurt the Trump presidency.”
“[High] RWA Trump voters (91%) are significantly more likely than other Trump voters (45%) to definitely agree that widespread voter fraud changed the presidential outcome.”
“They are also significantly more likely to strongly agree (62% to 27%) that state Republican election officials who claim there was no evidence of voter fraud are engaged in a cover-up.”
“And finally, high RWA Trump voters (60%) are likely than other Trump voters (25%) to strongly support having alternate slates of electors in states that Biden won narrowly.”
Polling director Patrick Murray: “[They] seem to have reframed the U.S. Constitution in their own minds to match whatever Trump says it is — such as disregard for the authority of co-equal branches of government. The fact that many of the Capitol rioters claimed that they were defending the Constitution shows how dangerous and subversive the authoritarian mindset can be.”
—> NEVER SAY DIE
Two Texas lawyers — including one guy who got fired after attending the Jan. 6 Capitol riot — have filed a federal lawsuit seeking to throw out every single vote in every single election in November and start over.
“With the sitting President’s term set to expire this Wednesday, January 20th, this situation is a Constitutional Crisis of cataclysmic proportion unlike any seen since the Southern States seceded from the Republic in 1861. The only conceivable remedy is for this Honorable Court to enter an injunction to restrain all further action and to enjoin the enforcement and effect of all previous actions of the 117th Congress until trial upon the merits, and, upon a verdict for the Plaintiffs, for the Court to order the 50 states to conduct a new federal election that conforms to the minimum standards of [the Help America Vote Act].”
In case you’re wondering, no, it won’t work.
3. Congress Returns
Chuck Schumer and Mitch McConnell are nearing a power-sharing agreement that will give both parties equal representation on Senate committees. That part’s easy. But McConnell also wants a guarantee that Dems won’t nuke the filibuster.
“Schumer would be giving away much of his leverage early on if he bowed to McConnell's hopes of enshrining official protections for the supermajority requirement. … If Democrats grow frustrated with a McConnell-led blockade, Schumer could in theory get all his members to get rid of that rule with a vice-presidential tie-break.” (Politico)
There are ways to weaken the filibuster without killing it: Add exceptions, such as for voting rights; require 41 votes to block instead of 60 to pass; lower the threshold from 60 to 55 or 53. (Vox)
Dems will need to address the filibuster to expand voting protections and reestablish preclearance requirements under the Voting Rights Act, top priorities of both the House and Senate.
In a speech Tuesday, McConnell signaled that he might vote to convict Trump at his forthcoming impeachment trial.
“‘The mob was fed lies,’ Mr. McConnell said. ‘They were provoked by the president and other powerful people. And they tried to use fear and violence to stop a specific proceeding of the first branch of the federal government which they did not like.’” (NYT)
About the mob: “Self-styled militia members from Virginia, Ohio, and other states made plans to storm the U.S. Capitol days in advance of the Jan. 6 attack, and then communicated in real-time as they breached the building on opposite sides and talked about hunting for lawmakers, according to new court documents filed Tuesday.” (WaPo)
—> MEANWHILE
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-QAnon, posted on Facebook in 2018 that the Parkland school shooting was a false flag event. (Media Matters)
While the Capitol riots were taking place, North Carolina Rep. Madison Cawthorn called the Charlie Kirk Show to blame “agitators strategically placed inside of this group — you can call them antifa, you can call them people paid by the Democratic machine — but to make the Trump campaign, the Trump movement, look bad.” (Asheville Citizen-Times)
The lawmakers who objected to the election results have lost the support of 20 of their 30 largest corporate backers. (WaPo)
4. Burr Gets Off
Justice Department officials informed Sen. Richard Burr that he won’t face insider trading charges for his very fortuitous stock moves just before the pandemic tanked the market.
“Burr, a North Carolina Republican, sold up to $1.7 million in stocks in early and mid-February …. Burr is a member of the Senate’s health committee and had received briefings about the status of the coronavirus, which had not yet made a large impact in the United States.” (N&O)
“Though [Burr] did not contest that he sold much of his portfolio out of concern for the spreading pandemic, he insisted that his trades were based entirely on information reported by financial news outlets in Asia, not special briefings he received as a senator.” (NYT)
5. What Did Meadows Get from Being Trump’s Yes-Man?
Trump went through chiefs of staff like the rest of us go through underwear. The last person to hold that position was former North Carolina congressman Mark Meadows, who gave up his seat to become Trump’s minder just as the pandemic set in.
By every metric, he was terrible at the job, perhaps the worst ever:
“[Meadows] has raised sycophancy to an art form. When Trump chose paths that were destructive to himself and to the country, there is little evidence that Meadows forced him to reconsider.”
Why would Meadows, who held a safe seat and was a leading voice of the conservative Freedom Caucus, volunteer for the impossible mission of running Trump’s White House?
“‘Mark didn’t really want to leave Congress but felt he needed to this last year,’ Club for Growth President David McIntosh said. ‘And once he made the decision to take the new role, he’s loyal, he’s going to stay to the end.’” (N&O)
Meadows has ruled out running for Burr’s Senate seat in 2022.
His next stop? Probably K Street. Meadows’s complicity in Trump’s efforts to overturn the election and this abysmal response to the pandemic may complicate future political plans. Or not — Meadows seems to be in good standing in MAGAland.
6. EPA Rejects Enviro Groups’ PFAS Petition
As a parting gift to North Carolina, the EPA rejected a petition from six environmental groups to force Chemours to fund health studies on 54 PFAS chemicals — the so-called forever chemicals released from its Fayetteville plant.
“The environmental groups say Chemours — and before it DuPont — are responsible for PFAS contamination in the Cape Fear River downstream of the Bladen County chemical plant and in more than 4,000 private wells surrounding it. … Nearly 300,000 people surrounding the plant and living downstream of it are believed to have been exposed to elevated levels of PFAS from decades of unregulated PFAS being discharged into the river and the air.”
“Potential adverse health effects from PFAS include liver damage, thyroid disease, decreased fertility, high cholesterol, obesity, hormone and immune suppression, and cancers of the liver, kidneys, pancreas, testicles, and thyroid.” (NC Health News)
—> RELATED
In 2019, North Carolina industries released 39 million pounds of pollution. Of that:
21.5 million was released into the air, the lowest level since 2003.
9.3 million was released onto land.
8.1 million was released into water, the highest since 2015.
7. North Carolina Has Vaccinated 450K People
Touring one of the state’s few mass vaccination sites with Governor Cooper, DHHS Secretary Mandy Cohen said North Carolina had administered 450,000 vaccines and was ramping up its vaccination program.
“Cooper said that ‘one of the reasons ... North Carolina was a little slower than other states [is] because the decision was made to give every single county doses the first time. And when you do that, to be equitable, there are going to be some who do not respond as well.’”
“Cooper said the state is making ‘significant’ progress and North Carolinians will see an increase this week. Cohen said what’s needed now is to support local providers and move vaccine to operations that can scale up and take on more vaccinations. She said this week they are moving doses around to those locations that can get it out fastest.” (N&O)
Whatever progress the state is making, Wake teachers aren’t likely to get the vaccine for a while.
“Wake County school board members pressed health officials Tuesday for a timetable on vaccination of school employees. ‘It’s hard to predict an exact date, but I’d say weeks to months,’ Dr. Jason Wittes, Wake County’s pharmacy director, told the board. ‘It all depends on how many doses the county as a whole receives.’” (N&O)
—> RELATED
At yesterday’s Durham City Council meeting, Mayor Steve Schewel gave Dr. Cohen a key to the city. (CBS 17)
8. Raleigh Offers Parking to Downtown Workers
The Raleigh City Council voted unanimously yesterday to set aside 400 free downtown parking spaces through April for downtown workers, even as the city’s parking revenue tanks.
“Raleigh has lost $2.3 million in parking revenue this fiscal year, and is expected to lose another $5 million in the coming budget as more people working from home and businesses cancel their parking accounts.” (N&O)
Raleigh started the program on Jan. 6 with 100 spaces and ran out in two days. Businesses with fewer than 49 employees are eligible for up to 10 spaces.
9. Durham Passes Nondiscrimination Ordinance
Durham became the fourth local municipality — after Hillsborough, Chapel Hill, and Carrboro — to pass a nondiscrimination ordinance that includes protections for sexual orientation and gender identity following the expiration of the state’s ban on local NDOs on Dec. 1.
“The Durham City Council voted unanimously to protect residents in employment and public accommodations from discrimination based on gender identity, sexuality, and military status. The approved ordinance also will protect hairstyles, types, and textures historically associated with race, beginning July 1.” (N&O)
—> OTHER LOCAL NEWS
As the economic effects of the pandemic worsened this fall and winter, the number of jobless workers receiving state unemployment benefits fell. (NC Justice Center)
The FBI arrested the first North Carolina resident in connection with the Capitol riot. (N&O)
A poll says that rural residents are less likely to get the COVID vaccine. (NC Health News)
N.C. State students protested to demand the resignation of an IT worker they say is connected to the Proud Boys. (WRAL)
The Daily Tar Heel is going to a weekly print schedule. (DTH)
10. What I’m Reading: “France Knows How This Ends”
After decades of cascading political crises, debilitating financial scandals, and rising anti-Semitism, the Dreyfus affair saw the emergence of political surreality, an alternate universe of hateful irrationality and militarized lies that captured the minds of nearly half the population.
That period in France, known as the Third Republic, never resulted in any reconciliation. It turned out to be impossible to compromise with those who not only rejected the truth but also found the truth offensive, a kind of existential threat. The social divide simply grew wider and wider, to the point where bridging the gap became a futile proposition. Even the national mobilization in World War I was not enough to create a durable unity; the wounds of the past proved impossible to heal. In fact, “unity” turned out to be the wrong goal to pursue. What mattered was defending the republic’s values, a defense never made forcefully enough.
Source: The Atlantic