The Presidential Events: December 2020

December wasn't a quiet month, and January doesn't seem to be shaping up as one either. But the former was Trump's last full month as President (unless he runs again in 2024 and wins).

With that thought, onto The Presidential Events of December 2020.

Foreign Policy:

Trump entrenched his objective of protecting Israel. He plans to sell $23 billion worth of F-35 Fighters, Reaper drones, bombs, and ammunition to the autocratic United Arab Emirates, in exchange for them recognizing Israel. The President signed a deal with Morocco that abandoned the people of West Sahara, a independent nation that UN recognized in 1991. Under the deal, the United States recognized Morocco as the ruler of the area controlled by the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, and Morocco recognized Israel.

Trump also withdrew the remaining 700 United States forces from Somalia.

Staff:

As the outgoing President, the President sought to cement his legacy and power. The Pentagon appointed Corey Lewandoski and David Bossie, two of Trump's campaign advisors, to the Defense Business Board. That was after the Department of Defense, under Trump's new Acting Secretary, Christopher Miller, fired three active members of the Board.

Trump also appointed supporters, Pam Bondi, Richard Grenell, Kellyanne Conway, and Hope Hicks to federal boards.

And the Senate continued to break tradition, appointing Thomas Kirsch to replaced Amy Coney Barrett on a federal appeals court.

Environment:

As a final gift for oil and gas companies, the President planned to sell leases for drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Education:

As progressives, like Sanders, AOC, Jamal Bowman, and Cori Bush, pushed for student loan forgiveness, billionaire heiress (and Education Secretary) Betsy DeVos condemned the plan. President-elect, Joe Biden, seemed to agree with DeVos.

Federal Executions:

In 2020, the Federal government, under Trump and Barr, executed ten men, and scheduled three more before Biden's inauguration. The federal government hadn't executed anyone since 2003. One would have to travel back sixty-six years to equal the amount of death dealt in the past year. The administration performed the first execution during a lame-duck period in over 130 years, with the death of Brandon Bernard on December 10^t^h. The White House killed a second man the following day, Alfred Bourgeois. Trump was the first president since 1896 to order the execution of at least ten people in a single year.

Immigration:

A federal judge ordered the White House to accept new applications for DACA. The memo which had stalled DACA, issued by acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Chad Wolf, which halted the program, was invalid, because Wolf had assumed his position unlawfully.

Trump supporters often say they supported legal immigration. Over the last four years Trump, made legal immigration impossible. In December Trump's administration issued new rules to further limit asylum eligibility.

This is the same president who illegally expelled at least 67 unaccompanied migrant children since November 18^th.

Hack:

The United States government reported that a massive cyberattack by a foreign country, probably Russia, posed a grave risk to federal and state governments, as well as critical infrastructure. Officials admitted that removing all traces of the malware would be a herculean effort. The hack began in March, through SolarWinds, a security company which supports the government and major corporations. An analysis revealed that the hackers gained access to email and data within the Departments of Defense, State, Treasury, Homeland Security, and Commerce, along with the National Nuclear Security Administration.

The President downplayed the hack in a tweet. When Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo condemned Russia's attack, the President deflected responsibilty.

Big Bills:

The President signed a funding bill to defer a government shutdown for a week.

Trump threatened to veto a $741 billion National Defense Authorization Act. He wanted to veto it because; it didn't repeal an internet free speech law, required renaming military bases with named after Confederate generals, and it wasn't tough enough on China.

He vetoed it.

As of this article, he also intended to veto the coronavirus relief bill. He demanded changes to the $900 billion bill, which only included $300 billion in new spending, and repackaged $600 billion from the previous coronavirus relief bills. The relief bill was combined with the government funding bill, and is complete with small tax cuts for the wealthy and wasteful spending. Trump demanded that Congress increase the $600 stimulus checks to $2,000 per person. Days later, he backed off his threat.

Pardons and DOJ:

Still upset that Attorney General Bill Barr didn't indict Joe Biden, or arrest Hunter Biden, Trump pressured Barr to release the Durham Report. The Durham report is the investigation investigating the Russia investigation. It is overseen by a Bill Barr aide seeking FBI misdeeds or corruption. According to the President's allies the report will be a bombshell, devastating Obama, Biden, and the Democratic Party. Critics of the probe say it hasn't discovered any corruption or mismanagement in over a year.

As the end of the Trump presidency approached, Bill Barr resigned.

But the day before he did, the President pardoned an incredible assortment of criminal allies. He pardoned four Blackwater contractors who murdered fourteen civilians in Baghdad. He forgave three former GOP representatives convicted of economic crimes. And he pardoned Papadopoulos and Van der Zwann, both of whom were convicted during the Russia investigation. The next day Trump pardoned Paul Manafort, Roger Stone, and Charlie Kushner. The first two were convicted for seven and three years in prison for tax evasion, and lying for the president during the Russia investigation. The latter is Jared Kushner's father, who was convicted for tax evasion and witness tampering in 2004.

Nearly all those pardoned had some personal connection to the president. With just under a month left, the question is, who else will the President pardon?

Or will the Department of Justice uncover a pay to pardon scheme as further evidence of the President's corruption?

The Coronavirus:

It's a toss up, which deserved more of a mention in December, the ravages of the coronavirus, or the election conspiracies touted by the President.

December was the first month with 100,000 concurrent hospitalizations for the coronavirus. It was the first month with 3,000 deaths in a day. It was the month when the United States reached 300,000 dead.

Fortunately the FDA approved the first coronavirus vaccine, manufactured by Pfizer. The first doses were given on the 14^th of December. The initial deployment of the vaccine foundered under poor leadership. The public learned that the White House purchased 100 million doses, but declined to purchase a second round of 100 million doses when offered by Pfizer. The public also learned that two Trump allies at Health and Human Services, Michael Caputo and Paul Alexander wanted to, "open up and flood the zone and let the kids and young folk get infected" to achieve "natural immunity.” They researched the idea, but their demands to cultivate herd immunity never effected policy.

As December ended, Congress finalized a coronavirus relief bill, which the President threatened to veto, but eventually signed. The deal is tiny compared to the $4 trillion relief initially passed by the Democratic House in the summer. It's only half the size of the $1.8 trillion deal offered by the White House in late October, and dismissed by Nancy Pelosi, as insufficient. The $900 billion plan includes the pitiable $600 stimulus checks, and $300 weekly enhancement to unemployment (both of these are half of what Democrats demanded in earlier bills). The 5,593 page bill was released a day before officials voted on it. As additional pressure for wavering members it shackled coronavirus relief to the annual spending bill.

A draft bill on the 15^th of December included a tax cut which benefited corporations and the wealthy.

The 2020 Election:

Trump still refused to conceded the election.

Though the President continued to claim the election was marred, Barr said there was no evidence of election fraud. Former top election security official, Christopher Krebs, was fired by Trump for disputing his election conspiracy theories. Brian Kemp, the Republican Governor of Georgia, refused Trump's demand to overturn the election result. Trump attacked Kemp and other disloyal Republicans on Twitter, and the targets are surprised and upset by the President's viciousness. Kemp complained that he and his family received death threats because of the President. Kemp didn't denounce the President's conspiracy theories in June. He didn't criticize Trump's claim that he would never accept the results of the election (unless he won). Kemp didn't see Trump's behavior as an issue. Even in his press briefing Kemp didn't blame the President. He blamed the people inspired by the President.

When the Wisconsin Supreme Court refused to hear an election lawsuit, Republicans in Pennsylvania asked the Supreme Court to overturn Biden's victory. The justices refused, without dissent. The Attorney General of Texas, Ken Paxton, launched a quixotic suit to overturn the results in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Georgia. The President of the United States tweeted, “#OVERTURN” in support.

Since 88% of elected Republicans in the House and Senate still won't acknowledge that Biden won the election, it wasn't surprising that 125 Republican Congressmen (64%) and seventeen states joined the suit.

All nine justices of the Supreme Court dismissed the lawsuit.

On December 15^th, the Electoral College confirmed Biden as the president-elect.

Trump and loyal Republicans still planned to hold onto the White House with desperate political maneuvers. Giuliani asked if DHS could seize state voting machines, while elected Republicans intended to send an alternative set of electors to Congress on January 6^th.

President Elect, Joe Biden:

Biden isn't President yet, but Inauguration day is less than a month away. During December the president-elect announced his preferred cabinet appointees; the main subject of this section. The biggest difficulty in considering these candidates is the media. Throughout the last few years I've used The Guardian, Vox, Politico, and Axios to pull together these articles. Being more sympathetic to a Biden administration, they may write less critical articles. Readers may see more links from leftist sites like The Intercept in the following year.

Biden's first nominee was General Lloyd Austin for Defense Secretary. Austin would be the first African American to hold the position, but comes with substantial baggage. He would be the second military leader in charge of a civilian agency, and would need a waiver from the Congress. As I argued when Trump appointed General James Mattis, “No!” Democrats, who refused to vote for the waiver in 2016, can't hypocritically switch their vote because a Democrat is president. Biden already appointed too many former military personnel to his transition team. On December 8^th The Intercept reported that Austin sat on the board of Raytheon, a major weapons manufacturer. This represents a massive conflict of interest, “making the position of secretary of defense the 'secretary of defense contractors.;”

Biden turned to the foreign policy establishment for support. The same people who brought the United States into intervensions, and the Afghanistan, Iraq wars are back. Which isn't surprising since Biden championed the invasion of Iraq.

When Biden's nominees aren't from the old old guard, they are selected with the new old guard; Obama alums. He choose newer congresswoman Marcia Fudge for HUD, but awarded the more prestigious position of Agriculture to Tom Vilsack. Vilsack served in the same position under Obama. Under Vilsack, the Department of Agriculture spent eight years abetting agribusiness and corporate interests, while refusing to help poorer, rural farmers. Black farmers and civil rights advocates, enraged at Vilsack's return, after spending four years as the President and CEO of the US Dairy Export Council, demanded Biden reconsider.

Biden placed well known politicians in positions antithetical to their expertise. Why was Susan Rice, a longtime Democratic foreign policy expert, nominated for a domestic policy council? Why was Denis McDonough, a man with limited (if any) history with veterans, nominated to run the Deparment of Veterans Affairs? Political favors. Pete Buttigieg gets to be Transportation Secretary, because he endorsed Biden, and wants to run for President some day. Not because he likes Ticket to Ride.

There are many Biden picks I don't know much about. Biden announced his economic team, which includes people who support basic bank regulation, but others who supported cutting social security.

Gina McCarthy, who will serve as climate czar, worked for the National Resources Defense Council; a point in her favor. Michael Regan will be the new head of the EPA. His climate team seems ok.

Biden nominated Jennifer Granholm to serve as Secretary of Energy.

He picked Deb Haaland as the first Native American Cabinet member, to be Interior Secretary.

But, Biden is also considering a Republican.

Is this a sign of corruption?

Finally, listen to Biden's meeting with civil rights leaders.

A Late, Late Christmas Present:

A Dutch hacker accessed the President of the United State's Twitter by guessing his password, “maga2020!”. Ho, ho! Ha, ha ... ha?