On Wednesday, at a Brookings Institution forum in Washington, CIA Director John Brennan reiterated that he would never allow waterboarding to resume at the agency, but acknowledged that the next president could order the reinstatement of the technique, widely regarded as a form of torture and banned by President Obama in a 2009 executive order. It will be up to the CIA director and others in the spy agency to decide if they can carry out those orders "in good conscience," Brennan added, "and I can say that as long as I'm director of CIA, irrespective of what the president says, I'm not going to be the director of CIA that gives that order. They'll have to find another director."

Brennan did not mention Donald Trump by name, but Trump has publicly endorsed the use of waterboarding and interrogation techniques "much tougher than waterboarding," while the other likely next president, Democrat Hillary Clinton, opposes waterboarding. Brennan suggested he would resign if President Trump ordered the CIA to waterboard not just for moral reasons but also practical ones, saying "you cannot establish cause and effect between the application of these [techniques] and credible information that came out of these individuals."

The CIA began its post-9/11 use of waterboarding with an innocuous-sounding contract "for someone familiar with conducting applied research in high-risk operational settings," a euphemism the agency employed to hire psychologist James E. Mitchell and partner Bruce Jessen in late 2001, The Washington Post reports, citing newly released CIA documents from an ACLU lawsuit. At first, Mitchell and Jessen were paid $1,000 a day to devise and evaluate harsh interrogation techniques adapted from U.S. Special Operations programs designed to keep elite soldiers from cracking under torture, but their contract ballooned to $180 million by 2006 (though they collected about half that much before the CIA pulled the plug). You can read more about the origins of this dark chapter in CIA history at The Washington Post. Peter Weber

Democrat Raphael Warnock has been projected the winner in Georgia's runoff Senate race, making him the first Black man to ever represent the state in the Senate. Democrat Jon Ossoff is meanwhile on the way to a win, and is set to become the first Jewish senator from the state.

Those wins aren't just historic, MSNBC's Joy Reid noted Wednesday. They also "resemble the coalition that defined the civil rights movement," she tweeted, recalling how Black and Jewish people partnered in the 1960s to fight white supremacy.

The Atlantic staff writer Adam Serwer, who is Black and Jewish, similarly called the likely wins "evocative of the old civil rights alliance" — and something he'd like to share with both his grandmothers.

And Rev. Al Sharpton, a longtime civil rights activist himself, said "the idea that a Black and a Jew would win in Georgia show this country is moving a lot further than Donald Trump thought." Kathryn Krawczyk

Is President Trump to blame for the GOP's disappointing showing in the Georgia Senate runoffs? His focus on baseless election fraud claims "certainly didn't help," former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) says.

Christie spoke on Wednesday morning with SiriusXM's Julie Mason about what he described as a "very disappointing" night for Republicans in the Georgia Senate runoffs, as Democrat Raphael Warnock was projected to defeat Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.), while Democrat Jon Ossoff leads Republican David Perdue in a race that hasn't been called.

Asked whether Trump was to blame for the result, Christie noted that "when you're the head of the party, when you win, you get credit, and when you lose, you get blame." He added that Trump spending the past two months largely focused on his false claims that the presidential election was stolen from him was a factor.

"The kind of singular focus of the president since Election Day, not on COVID vaccination distribution, not on the Georgia Senate races, but on his continued claims, without any basis in fact, of widespread election fraud in the country, certainly didn't help motivate Republican voters in Georgia, and certainly appears to have motivated Democratic voters," Christie said.

Christie, who said he last spoke with Trump about three weeks ago, also predicted that Trump will never concede the presidential election because he's not "capable of admitting that he lost," and he dismissed Trump's attempt to pressure Vice President Mike Pence to overturn the results despite his lack of authority to do so.

"Only someone who has no understanding of the law at all would think there's any pressure on Mike Pence," Christie said. Brendan Morrow

Democrat Jon Ossoff is claiming victory over Republican David Perdue in their Georgia Senate runoff, though the race still remains too close to call.

The Democratic Senate candidate spoke during a live stream on Wednesday morning as the latest results show him leading Perdue by about 16,000 votes with 98 percent of votes reported, according to The New York Times. A winner in the race has not yet been projected by The Associated Press or any of the major television networks, however, and Perdue hasn't conceded.

"It is with humility that I thank the people of Georgia for electing me to serve you in the United States Senate," Ossoff said. "Thank you for the confidence and trust that you have placed in me."

Ossoff in his address also pledged to "serve all the people of the state" and "give everything I've got to ensuring that Georgia's interests are represented in the U.S. Senate."

Democrat Raphael Warnock was previously projected to defeat Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.) in their Senate runoff. A victory by Ossoff would, therefore, allow Democrats to take control of the Senate, creating a 50-50 split between both parties where ties would be broken by Vice President-elect Kamala Harris. Brendan Morrow

British Judge Vanessa Baraitser has denied bail to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange after previously rejecting the United States' extradition request.

The judge on Wednesday ruled "there are substantial grounds for believing that if Mr. Assange is released today he would fail to surrender to court and face the appeal proceedings," and so he will remain in prison in London, CNN reports.

Earlier this week, Baraitser denied a request by the U.S. to extradite the WikiLeaks founder, ruling that "the mental condition of Mr. Assange is such that it would be oppressive to extradite him to the United States of America." The Justice Department is appealing the decision.

Assange faces U.S. espionage and hacking charges in connection with WikiLeaks' publication of classified communications. He has been in custody since April 2019 after being arrested for skipping bail, The Associated Press reports.

While Assange's lawyer argued he has "every reason to stay in this jurisdiction where he has the protection of the rule of law and this court's decision" after the United States' extradition request was denied, the judge concluded that "as far as Mr. Assange is concerned this case has not yet been won," and "Mr. Assange still has an incentive to abscond from these as yet unresolved proceedings." Brendan Morrow

Republicans on Wednesday are reeling over the loss of one, probably two Senate seats in Georgia on Tuesday. If Democrats Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff flip both Senate seats, as now expected, the Democrats will take control of the Senate on Jan. 20. And "Republicans, who enabled President Trump with their silence and compliance, are privately furious with him for blowing their Senate majority," Mike Allen reports at Axios. "It's a fitting and predictable end to Trump's reign."

"In four years, Trump has lost his presidency, and the House and the Senate for the GOP," Marc Caputo notes at Politico. And "while Trump has a phoenix-like ability to rise from the ashes of his norm-shattering outrages, others just become ash." The "blame game is already burning within the GOP," he adds, but aside from Georgia election official Gabriel Sterling — who blamed Trump on CNN — most Republicans "are criticizing Trump anonymously."

"Trump is the cause of this, lock, stock, and barrel," one Republican strategist told Politico. "But when you're relying on someone to win you a Senate race that also lost statewide eight weeks prior, you're not in a position of strength." A senior Senate GOP aide, when asked why Republicans lost on Tuesday, said, "Donald J. Trump." Some Trump allies pushed back, blaming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) for refusing to hold a vote on $2,000 stimulus checks. The Republican candidates, Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, also took friendly fire.

But many "top Republicans blame Trump for sabotaging what should have been two easy wins — turning off suburban voters with his chaos and craziness, and sowing distrust of the Peach State election machinery with base voters," Axios' Allen writes. Still, "as a curtain call for Trumpism, approximately a dozen senators and 100+ House Republicans today will publicly support an idea that many of them think is idiotic and doomed to fail, as they protest congressional certification of President-elect Biden's victory." Peter Weber

Hong Kong police early Wednesday arrested at least 53 pro-democracy advocates over their roles in last year's unofficial vote to choose opposition candidates in city elections. Authorities said the vote was part of a plan to "overthrow" the government in the semi-autonomous, China-ruled former British colony. The arrests amounted to the biggest roundup of democracy advocates yet under a new national security law Beijing imposed to discourage dissent. Among the former lawmakers and activists arrested was an American citizen, lawyer John Clancey, detained during a raid on a law firm, Reuters reports.

Hong Kong Secretary for Security John Lee said the operation targeted people "suspected to be involved in the crime of overthrowing or interfering seriously to destroy the Hong Kong government’s legal execution of duties." Victoria Hui, a Notre Dame political science professor who studies Hong Kong, called the raids a "total sweep" of opposition leaders that suggest Beijing will treat running for office as subversion. Harold Maass