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Trump is now attacking Christianity Today — and its editor is doubling down
December 20, 2019 -
Trump administration pushes ahead with sale of oil and gas leases in Alaska wildlife refuge
2:07 a.m. -
Sri Lankan man and his mobile library bring books to kids in remote areas
1:17 a.m. -
Fox News host Juan Williams tests positive for COVID-19
12:31 a.m. -
Report: DOJ investigated top GOP donor, Kushner lawyer in suspected pardon scheme
December 3, 2020 -
White House communications director Alyssa Farah resigns
December 3, 2020 -
Biden says he's concerned about reports Trump is considering preemptive pardons
December 3, 2020 -
Biden says he'll ask Americans to wear masks for 1st 100 days he's in office
December 3, 2020
The prominent evangelical magazine Christianity Today published an editorial Thursday arguing that President Trump's actions in Ukraine are both "a violation of the Constitution" and "profoundly immoral." That "Trump should be removed from office," wrote editor-in-chief Mark Galli, "is not a matter of partisan loyalties but loyalty to the Creator of the Ten Commandments." Trump reacted about about as you'd expect.
....have a Radical Left nonbeliever, who wants to take your religion & your guns, than Donald Trump as your President. No President has done more for the Evangelical community, and it’s not even close. You’ll not get anything from those Dems on stage. I won’t be reading ET again!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 20, 2019
On Friday's New Day, CNN's John Berman read Trump's tweet to Galli and asked for his reaction. Most people consider Christianity Today "a pretty centrist magazine in the evangelical world," he said. "We're certainly not far-right, and I suppose anyone who's not far-right, he would consider far-left." Galli seemed surprised that Berman found his judgment of Trump's moral behavior more notable than his call for Trump's ouster. Trump's immoral behavior is broadly acknowledged, he said. "The question is, when does his behavior — which is described as immoral, accurately — rise to the level where he's no longer fit to serve office? And to me, we crossed that line with the impeachment hearings."
"When Christians of any stripe support a cause that strikes me as manifestly immoral, it does damage to the cause that I've given my life to," says Mark Galli, editor-in-chief of Christianity Today, on calling for Trump's removal from office in an op-ed.https://t.co/7ngFEniPle pic.twitter.com/j2uAJm9zFz
— New Day (@NewDay) December 20, 2019
Galli addressed in his editorial Trump's argument that his evangelical-friendly policies merit turning a blind eye to his unconstitutional and immoral acts, and he found it unpersuasive. He elaborated in an interview with The Atlantic's Emma Green. Galli compared Trump to a verbally abusive husband who "starts to become violent, and dangerously violent. He's still a good provider. He still loves the kids. But nobody would say, 'You need to weigh this!'" Trump has "done some good that I am grateful for," he said. "But the moral scales no longer balance. It's time for him to get out of the house, so to speak."
Green asked if Galli was motivated by his "belief that the association with Trump is going to do long-term damage to the ability of Christians to share the Gospel." "Oh my God," Galli said. "It's going to be horrific." Peter Weber
The Bureau of Land Management said on Thursday that it will hold an auction in early January for drilling rights in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
As part of tax legislation passed by the GOP-led Congress in 2017, the Bureau of Land Management is required to hold two lease sales for drilling rights in the refuge's coastal plain within seven years, with the first one having to take place by December 2021. The auction is set for Jan. 6, just a few weeks before President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration. Biden has said he will take steps to ensure the 19.64-million-acre refuge, the pristine home to migrating caribou and polar bears, is permanently protected.
NPR reports that the Trump administration has accelerated the sale, with the Bureau of Land Management not waiting the required 30 days for oil companies to tell the government the land they want included in the lease sale. The coastal plain covers 1.6 million acres, and is believed to hold billions of barrels of oil.
Conservation groups say drilling in the area could cause irreparable damage to the refuge and wildlife, with Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune telling CBS News auctioning off the leases is "a shameful attempt by Donald Trump to give one last handout to the fossil fuel industry on his way out the door, at the expense of our public lands and our climate." Six banks, including Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Citi, have told the Sierra Club they will not finance drilling in the refuge. Catherine Garcia
Mahinda Dasanayaka wants all kids to have access to books, and to make this happen, he turned his motorbike into a library on two wheels.
Dasanayaka, a 32-year-old father of two, is a child protection officer for the Sri Lankan government. Three years ago, he launched a program called Book and Me, and once or twice a week he travels to about 20 villages across Kegalle, a mountainous region northeast of Sri Lanka's capital, to distribute books. He goes to villages that do not have libraries, and Dasanayaka told The Associated Press kids are "always eagerly waiting for me, always looking for new books."
He brings everything from biographies to detective stories, which he carefully packs in a steel box attached to his bike. His collection has grown to about 3,000 books — some he bought with his modest salary, others donated. Dasanayaka said there are "some kids who hadn't seen even a children's storybook until I went to their villages," and he continues the program because he wants to bring people together and "change the way kids look at society, to change their perspectives and broaden their imagination."
Dasanayaka talks to the kids about the books, and hopes to soon form reading clubs in the villages. He told AP seeing the children read brings him joy, and he is "delighted to hear the kids say that books helped them to change their lives." That, he added, is "my ultimate happiness." Catherine Garcia
Juan Williams, one of the co-hosts of the Fox News talk show The Five, confirmed to The Hill on Thursday that he has tested positive for COVID-19.
Williams said he has been tested weekly, and on Thursday, he was notified that his Monday test came back positive. A second test conducted on Thursday also came back positive. Williams told The Hill he is experiencing flu-like symptoms, including chills and headaches, and is isolating at a hotel in Washington, D.C.
On Wednesday, Williams taped a live episode of The Five from the studio in New York, with the co-hosts all sitting about seven feet apart. A Fox News spokesperson told The Hill that the network "will continue to take all necessary precautions to ensure the safety of our staff, including broadcasting The Five via home studios for the foreseeable future."
The spokesperson added that Fox News has implemented "strict company-wide protocols adhering to all CDC and state guidelines, including regular testing of all in-studio, on-air personalities, mask mandates, and daily health assessments for all employees entering the building." Catherine Garcia
As recently as this summer, the Department of Justice investigated the roles of Elliott Broidy, a Republican fundraiser, and Abbe Lowell, a lawyer for President Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, in an alleged scheme to pay a bribe in exchange for a pardon, two people familiar with the matter told The New York Times.
On Tuesday, redacted court documents were unsealed that showed the existence of the investigation into possible unregistered lobbying and bribery. People familiar with the case told the Times that Sanford Diller, a billionaire real estate developer from the San Francisco area, solicited help from Broidy and Lowell in an attempt to get clemency for Hugh Baras, a psychologist from Berkeley who received a 30-month prison sentence after being convicted of tax evasion and improperly claiming Social Security benefits.
The Times reports that Diller was set to make "a substantial political contribution" to an unspecified recipient in order for the pardon to be made, and the court documents state that as part of the effort, the White House Counsel's Office was approached by someone who wanted to make sure the "clemency petition reached the targeted officials." Diller died in February 2018, and the Times says there is no evidence that the plan moved ahead following his death.
No one has been charged in this inquiry, and a Justice Department official said no member of the government is "currently a subject or target of the investigation disclosed in this filing." Reid Weingarten, a lawyer for Lowell, confirmed to the Times that his client did represent Baras, who never received clemency. Broidy's attorney, William Burck, told the Times his client was asked by Diller to assist on a clemency petition, and it was not a lobbying effort. Both Weingarten and Burck downplayed the investigation, with Weingarten saying it was "much ado about precious little."
Broidy was a top fundraising official for Trump's inauguration and later became the deputy finance chair of the Republican National Committee. In October, he pleaded guilty to conspiring to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act in connection with another case involving an attempt to influence the Trump administration on behalf of Chinese and Malaysian interests. Catherine Garcia
Alyssa Farah, the White House communications director, resigned on Thursday.
Farah, a former spokeswoman for the conservative House Freedom Caucus, was part of the Trump administration for more than three years, starting as press secretary under Vice President Mike Pence before moving over to the same role at the Defense Department. She became White House communications director in April.
Farah, 31, submitted her resignation letter on Thursday, The Washington Post reports, and wrote that being able to work in the White House was "the honor of a lifetime." Farah also said she is "deeply proud of the incredible things we were able to accomplish to make our country stronger, safer, and more secure." Farah, whose last day is Friday, plans on launching a consulting firm. Catherine Garcia
President-elect Joe Biden said when it comes to the Department of Justice, he is "not going to be telling them what they have to do and don't have to do."
Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris were interviewed by CNN's Jake Tapper on Thursday, and the discussion turned to reports that President Trump is contemplating preemptively pardoning his adult children, son-in-law Jared Kushner, and personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani. Biden said this "concerns me in terms of what kind of precedent it sets and how the rest of the world looks [at] us as a nation of laws and justice."
Biden promised that he is "not going to be saying, 'Go prosecute A, B, or C,' I'm not going to be telling them. That's not the role, it's not my Justice Department, it's the people's Justice Department. So the persons or person I pick to run that department are going to be people who are going to have the independent capacity to decide who gets prosecuted, who doesn't."
Harris, who once served as California's attorney general, added that the administration will assume that "any decision coming out of the Justice Department ... should be based on the law, it should not be influence by politics, period." Catherine Garcia
President-elect Joe Biden is going to make a request to the American people on his first day in office.
During an interview with CNN's Jake Tapper on Thursday, Biden said he will ask Americans to wear masks during his first 100 days, in order to curb the spread of the coronavirus. "Just 100 days to mask, not forever," Biden said. "100 days. And I think we'll see a significant reduction." While many states do have statewide mask mandates, several others, including Alaska, Arizona, and Florida, do not.
Biden told Tapper that he will impose a standing order making masks mandatory in places where he has authority, like federal buildings, and shared that he has asked Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, to also serve as chief medical adviser and a member of Biden's COVID-19 response team once his administration begins.
Over the last day, former Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama have all pledged to publicly receive the coronavirus vaccine in order to show it is safe, and Biden said he will be "happy" to do the same, adding that this is something that's "important to communicate to the American people." Catherine Garcia