Hillary Clinton's running mate is a matter of pretty intense speculation, and the Republican National Committee, like the news media, thinks Clinton will probably pick Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), or HUD Secretary Julian Castro, according to an RNC strategy memo obtained by The Huffington Post. The RNC research team, the memo says, "has been quietly building a framework to systematically dismantle the records" of Clinton's running mates for "several months," with the goal to "pre-emptively influence coverage and define top contenders ... in a manner that will peel away the most votes."

RNC Research director Raj Shah calls the VP vetting endeavor "Project Pander," and his two proposed means of peeling those votes away are to use Clinton's VP pick to "drive wedges between these top contenders and either Clinton and/or traditional Democrat constituencies, such as labor, environmentalists, and gun control advocates," and, "where applicable, frame the choice as an insult to the large, deep base of Bernie Sanders supporters who are struggling with the notion of supporting Hillary Clinton as the presumptive Democrat nominee."

Each likely candidate is given a frame — Kaine is a "career politician" who's not liberal enough for "the Sanders wing" but too liberal for America; Warren is "a rich, liberal egoist" with "intensely liberal and uncompromising positions on taxes ... at odds with Middle America"; and Castro "could easily be portrayed as a John Edwards-esque pick, whereby someone with good looks but a thin resume is viewed as a novice on the national stage" — and Shah says it will use the research "to release or pitch on background prior to the nomination, and during the first hours after the announcement is made."

RNC communications director Sean Spicer told The Huffington Post that the RNC is digging deep on each candidate, while Clinton campaign spokesman Brian Fallon said "no amount of Googling by RNC researchers" will make Donald Trump fit to be president. You can read more about the GOP's planned attacks on Clinton's likely running mate — or learn why you should opposed each candidate — in the RNC memo, or at The Huffington Post. Peter Weber

Michigan's board of canvassers certified the state's presidential election results with a bipartisan vote Monday, giving the all clear for President-elect Joe Biden to receive Michigan's 16 electoral votes.

After a tumultuous few weeks, during which the possibility of a partisan split among the four canvassers seemed like a possibility, the certification put a cap on the matter for many observers. In short, the common refrain was: it's over.

Not so for the Trump campaign, however. In a statement, Jenna Ellis, the campaign's legal adviser, said the board's vote was "simply a procedural step" and insisted President Trump's legal team would continue to pursue its unfounded claims of widespread voter fraud across the country.

It's a difficult promise to make, of course. The campaign's efforts are becoming more of a long shot each day, as states continue to certify their votes and lawsuits get tossed out by judges with little interruption. Tim O'Donnell

The Secret Service has reportedly started to prepare for providing protection to President Trump, who still hasn't conceded the 2020 election, after he leaves the White House in January.

Secret Service agents who work in Trump's detail "are being asked whether they're interested in transferring to Palm Beach, Florida," in a "clear sign" that Trump's "post-presidency life is taking shape," ABC News reports. Additionally, the Secret Service has reportedly been looking at "physical reinforcements" to Trump's Mar-a-Lago club.

The report notes that these are unofficial moves by the Secret Service because Trump has not yet conceded the election to President-elect Joe Biden, and a Secret Service spokesperson only told ABC that the agency doesn't discuss the "means, methods or resources we utilize to carry out our protective mission."

Meanwhile, ABC also reports that renovations to living quarters at Mar-a-Lago that are "expected to be occupied" by the president and by first lady Melania Trump after they leave the White House are underway, although Trump is also reportedly expected to spend time in New York and at his New Jersey golf club. Read more at ABC News. Brendan Morrow

Aaron Van Langevelde, a Michigan GOP canvassing board member, on Monday voted to certify the state's election results. And with that, Michigan's 16 electoral votes, as expected, will go to President-elect Joe Biden.

The four-person board, which is split between Democrats and Republicans, certified the vote 3-0, with the other GOP member abstaining, Politico's Tim Alberta reports.

Biden won Michigan by around 150,000 votes, but it wasn't always clear until recently that the board would certify because of President Trump's unfounded claims of widespread voter fraud in the state.

Langevelde put that to rest, stating "we have a clear legal duty to certify the results of the election as shown by the returns that were given to us. We cannot and should not go beyond that." Tim O'Donnell

President-elect Joe Biden is expected to nominate former Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen to lead the Treasury Department, people familiar with the decision told The Wall Street Journal. Yellen declined to comment, the Journal notes.

If confirmed, Yellen would become the first woman to fill the role, as well as the first person to head the Treasury, the central bank, and the White House Council of Economic Advisers.

Yellen oversaw the Fed between 2014 and 2018. She was originally nominated by former President Barack Obama and was confirmed by the Senate with bipartisan support, including three sitting Republican lawmakers — Sens. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska). That seemingly increases her chances of getting through the process again, even if the GOP holds on to its majority.

Per the Journal, the Biden transition team views Yellen as a "credible authority on the dangers of prematurely withdrawing government stimulus and as someone who could collaborate closely with the Fed and executive-branch agencies to engineer more support if Congress remains hesitant to act" on coronavirus relief legislation. Read more at The Wall Street Journal. Tim O'Donnell

Another awards show, another new ratings low.

The 2020 American Music Awards on Sunday drew an average of 3.8 million viewers and a 0.9 rating among adults 18-49, both of which were new lows for the ceremony, Variety reports. The AMAs experienced a 50 percent rating decline, as well as a 43 percent viewership decline. Last year's AMAs, Variety notes, only fell four percent in the ratings, and viewership ticked up that year by about 200,000.

But awards shows have been fairly consistently declining in the ratings recently. The 2020 Emmys in September again drew its smallest audience of all time with about 6.1 million viewers, while this year's Billboard Music Awards, Academy of Country Music Awards, and Country Music Association Awards also all hit ratings lows.

Sunday's American Music Awards, which took place in Los Angeles with a limited audience amid the pandemic, featured performances from artists including Justin Bieber and Billie Eilish, and the show's top prize of Artist of the Year went to Taylor Swift. But despite Swift's record-extending win, it seems not a huge amount of TV viewers showed up at this party. Brendan Morrow

The coronavirus almost certainly originated in another species before jumping to humans (perhaps infecting a third party species in between), but new research is suggesting that humans could also play the role of vector, National Geographic reports.

A new study led by Harris Lewin, a professor of ecology and evolution at University of California, Davis, found that humans could potentially spread the virus to wild animals, and they probably already have among animals in captivity. For example, Lewin said it's likely lions and tigers that contracted the virus at the Bronx Zoo in New York were infected by human zookeepers.

That could put endangered species — especially close human relatives like the western lowland gorilla, the Sumatran orangutan, chimpanzees, and bonobos — at high risk of a COVID-19 outbreak, especially in places where wild animals are more likely to come into close contact with humans, Lewin told Nat Geo.

Lewin's co-author Klaus-Peter Koepfli singled out Africa's eastern gorilla as another high-risk species because the fewer than 5,000 remaining individuals live in close-knit family groups, making them more vulnerable to their own pandemic.

The good news is there's no evidence the virus is spreading among wild animal populations, and the animals that have been infected in experimental settings have mostly exhibited mild cases. But the risk remains, so Koepfli and Lewin are calling for a focus on preventative methods such as national park staffers getting regularly tested to mitigate the threat. Read more at National Geographic. Tim O'Donnell