Joe Biden's best teleprompter gaffes of 2020

President-elect Joe Biden has had plenty of misadventures with the teleprompter in 2020.

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  • Pete Buttigieg reportedly really wants a Cabinet spot — but not just any Cabinet spot

    Pete Buttigieg is reportedly ready to make his political return — if President-elect Joe Biden can find a suitable place for him.The former South Bend, Indiana, mayor proved a strong contender in the crowded 2020 Democratic primaries before dropping out and endorsing Biden. He's now seeking a spot in the Biden administration, and is a little picky about where he ends up, people familiar with the matter tell Axios.Buttigieg's top choice in a Biden administration was reportedly ambassador to the United Nations — a Cabinet-level post in Buttigieg's preferred arena of foreign policy. But Biden passed Buttigieg over for that role, giving it to Linda Thomas-Greenfield, who has worked in Foreign Service almost as long as Buttigieg has been alive.It's not that Biden isn't fond of Buttigieg; He has gone so far as to compare the former mayor to his late son Beau. Instead, Biden has been focused on picking women and people of color for his top spots — something that has frustrated those looking for LGBTQ leaders in the Democratic administration, Washington Blade reports. And Buttigieg hasn't made it easy for Biden to include him either. Buttigieg shook off talks of being Biden's Office of Management and Budget director because he wanted a "real Cabinet" position and not a "staff-level" job, a Democratic insider tells Washington Blade. He also reportedly squashed talks of leading the Department of Veterans Affairs.Now, Biden is considering giving Buttigieg a high-profile ambassadorship, potentially even sending him to China, Axios reports. Buttigieg is also reportedly being considered for some remaining domestic roles — something his supporters see as a way to build his profile before another presidential run.More stories from theweek.com Former Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson says he won't be part of Biden administration Trump's jaw-dropping vaccine screwup Bernie Sanders calls White House's $600 stimulus check proposal 'crap'

  • A jail officer in Spokane, Washington, shot and killed a 70-year-old woman in the building's lobby

    Nancy King's nephew told local news he didn't understand why the officer couldn't handle the elderly, 110-pound woman in a less lethal way.

  • Some of those involved in killing of Iranian nuclear scientist arrested, official says

    DUBAI (Reuters) -Some of those involved in the assassination of Iran's top nuclear scientist last month have been arrested, an adviser to the Iranian parliament speaker said on Tuesday, according to the semi-official news agency ISNA. Iran has blamed Israel for the Nov. 27 killing of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, who was seen by Western intelligence services as the mastermind of a covert Iranian nuclear weapons programme.

  • Mechanic: 'Everything perfect' before fatal WWII plane crash

    The only surviving crew member of a World War II-era bomber that crashed in Connecticut last year, killing seven people, told investigators that “everything was perfect” before takeoff and he doesn't understand what went wrong, according to federal documents released Wednesday. Mitchell Melton was the mechanic aboard the four-engine, propeller-driven B-17G Flying Fortress bomber that crashed at Bradley International Airport north of Hartford on Oct. 2, 2019. The NTSB made documents in the investigation public on its website Wednesday, including a transcript of a nearly two-hour interview with Melton in November 2019.

  • CNN overtakes Fox News in post-election average viewing figures after Donald Trump's defeat

    CNN overtook Fox News in its average viewership in the month after the US election in the latest sign that Donald Trump’s once favourite cable news outfit has taken a hit. CNN, the cable news channel which has been a persistent target of the US president’s ire, averaged 1.73 million viewers between November 4 and last Sunday. That figure, released by the company Nielsen, beat the Fox News Channel which had an average viewership of 1.56 million. MSNBC, a left-leaning cable news channel, got 1.53 million. It is the first time CNN has outperformed Fox News on the metric for a month since the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attack in 2001, according to the Associated Press. CNN this weekend took out adverts championing its boost in viewership in the aftermath of the US election, which took place on November 3. “Since the day after the election, there has been a clear winner,” the adverts said, jokingly referencing Mr Trump’s refusal to concede the election to Democrat Joe Biden, the victor. The drop in popularity of Fox News in part reflects the recent phenomenon that channels aligned with one particular political ‘side’ in America see a fall in viewers after a perceived 'defeat', in this instance Mr Trump’s election loss. However it also could reflect the US president’s outright criticism of Fox over its election night coverage and refusal to back-up his baseless claims that victory was “stolen” from him by mass voter fraud.

  • White House interns don't get paid. A group of more than 200 former interns is calling on Joe Biden to fix that.

    Congressman Tim Ryan told Business Insider he "hopes the White House follows our lead in the House" and makes internships paid positions.

  • Police Reports Detail Warnock’s Obstruction in 2002 Child-Abuse Probe That Led to His Arrest

    Reverend Raphael Warnock, the Democratic U.S. Senate candidate in Georgia, repeatedly obstructed a 2002 police investigation into child abuse at a church-affiliated summer camp, according to a new report.Maryland State Police reports obtained by the Washington Free Beacon detailed Warnock’s attempts to interfere with interviews and to discourage counselors from speaking with police during an investigation of physical abuse at Camp Farthest Out. At the time, Warnock served as senior pastor at Douglas Memorial Community Church, which ran the summer camp.Warnock, who now faces a tight runoff race against Republican Kelly Loeffler on January 5, interrupted police interviews of counselors on July 31, 2002, according to the report."This investigator informed [camp administrators] that if the counselors requested that an attorney be present that was their right, however, no one else could [invoke] their rights to an attorney on their behalf," the report reads.The Free Beacon reports that the names in the documents are redacted, but match closely with newspaper articles about the incident, which ultimately led to Warnock’s arrest. The state attorney later dropped the charges.At the time The Baltimore Sun reported that Warnock and a colleague were "accused in court documents of trying to prevent a state trooper of interviewing counselors at Camp Farthest Out" and that the ministers "interrupted a police interview of a counselor." Warnock said then that he was "only asserting that lawyers should be present when the camp counselors were interviewed."During a debate on Sunday, Warnock said that law enforcement officers “actually later thanked me for my cooperation and for helping them," and the deputy state attorney told the Baltimore Sun the same in November 2002.Police reports filed by state troopers after Warnock and Reverend Mark Andre Wainwright were arrested for “hindering and obstructing” police show that investigators warned Warnock a number of times to stop disrupting the investigation ahead of his arrest.Tfc. Danielle Barry, an investigator with the Maryland State Police’s child abuse division, wrote in her report that the pair "interfered with a criminal investigation by interrupting interviews and directing people not to talk to investigators."Though Warnock and camp administrators agreed to cooperate when investigators arrived to conduct interviews with counselors, they later voiced concerns about "legal ramifications from the alleged abuse case" and insisted that the camp’s attorney be present for any interviews with counselors or campers.Warnock and Wainright entered the room where investigators were conducting their first interview of the day with a 17-year-old counselor in a private camp office and “demanded that [they] be present for the interview,” according to the report.Barry told them they were "not permitted to join the interview and warned that they were "hindering and obstructing the investigation."Warnock then announced he would no longer allow investigators to use the camp office for interviews, and he and Wainright told Barry that they "did not like how things were progressing and therefore ‘they’ would not be cooperating in the case further." "This investigator explained to the reverends that what they were doing was committing a crime for which they could be arrested," the report says.After investigators relocated to an outside picnic area to continue their interviews, the reverends once again demanded to sit in on an interview being conducted, forcing Barry to cut her interview short.A camper later tried to give investigators the location of another potential subject to interview when one of the reverends "grabbed the camper by the arm and directed him away from these investigators" and "told the camper that he was not to talk to these people," according to the report.Barry then reached out to the deputy state attorney about the interference, she wrote, and a decision was made to arrest Warnock and Wainwright.

  • Defeated, lying, narcissist ex-President Trump will make a perfect ‘Florida man’ | Opinion

    Step aside Congressman Matt Gaetz, Florida man personified, you’ve got real competition now.

  • The 7 Best Airbnbs in New Orleans

    Explore the most unique properties the Big Easy has to offerOriginally Appeared on Architectural Digest

  • 14 Fort Hood soldiers fired, suspended over violence at base

    The Army on Tuesday said it has fired or suspended 14 officers and enlisted soldiers at Fort Hood, Texas, and ordered policy changes to address chronic failures of leadership that contributed to a widespread pattern of violence, including murder, sexual assault and harassment. In a sweeping condemnation of Fort Hood's command hierarchy, Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy fired three top commanders and suspended two others pending a further investigation.

  • Arizona Republican leaders are now openly sniping at each other

    "The Arizona Republican Party has asked its followers if they are willing to die for the cause of overturning the presidential election results, eliciting alarm and criticism from within and outside the GOP," The Arizona Republic reports. The negative responses from Arizona Republicans to Tuesday's tweet from the state GOP was just the latest open squabbling in the party as it grapples with President Trump's loss, his losing legal battle to overturn that defeat, the better-than-expected election results for state Republicans, and the challenges that are emerging as Arizona slides from GOP control to swing state."There's been a civil war boiling in the Republican Party for a couple of years," Marcus Dell'Artino, a Republican strategist in Phoenix, tells The New York Times. "Now we're seeing the public part of it."A sizable chunk of the Arizona Republican Party is siding with Trump and his lawyer Rudy Giuliani as they try to retroactively win an election Trump lost to President-elect Joe Biden. But Gov. Doug Ducey (R), a Trump supporter, is not among them. After he signed the certification of Biden's victory — while ignoring a call from Trump on camera — Arizona GOP chairwoman Kelli Ward told him to "STHU," or shut the hell up. He responded, "I think what I would say is the feeling's mutual to her, and practice what you preach."Ward also called Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers (R) "cowardly" for shutting down the House for a week following Giuliani's close visit with a dozen GOP lawmakers just days before testing positive for COVID-19. And when Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), a Trump loyalist, suggested Ducey would "coerce vaccinations" for COVID-19, Ducey's chief of staff, Daniel Scarpinato called Biggs "nuts" and suggested he "enjoy your time as a permanent resident of Crazytown."It isn't clear if Ward, a divisive figure representing the party's far-right faction, will seek another term when the Arizona GOP picks its next chair in January.More stories from theweek.com Former Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson says he won't be part of Biden administration Trump's jaw-dropping vaccine screwup Bernie Sanders calls White House's $600 stimulus check proposal 'crap'

  • A nurse in the Pfizer vaccine trial said her side effects were so bad she worried she had the virus - but it was worth it

    Kristen Choi had a high fever, nausea, and fatigue after her second shot, but the effects subsided. She said getting the shot was worth it.

  • Russian police hunt thieves who plundered top secret 'Doomsday Plane'

    Police in Russia said on Wednesday they were searching for thieves who plundered technical equipment from a top-secret military aircraft known as the Doomsday Plane that is designed for use during a nuclear war. Police in the southern region of Rostov said in a statement that a search for the culprits was under way. Russian military experts speculated that the items had been stolen because some of the units had been assembled using precious metals such as gold and platinum.

  • San Francisco Puts Another Nail in Its Own Coffin

    Media coverage of San Francisco’s recent passage of a citywide “wealth tax” has been hard to come by, to say the least. One can be forgiven for wondering if leftist media outlets even see the writing on the city’s wall. It is not just that this bill will do little to provide additional net revenue to a city facing financial ruin; it is that this bill will surely do the exact opposite. Even critics of modern income inequality see policy prescriptions such as this as counterproductive. Indeed, in the present COVID-19 moment, San Francisco needs all the help it can get to attract businesses and well-paid taxpayers. This couldn’t come at a worse time.So, what is this new tax? Supporters call it the “overpaid executive tax.” (Kudos to them for framing so bluntly.) Technically, the citywide tax will operate as a levy of at least 0.1 percent on companies that pay their CEO more than 100 times the median pay of their workforce. That 0.1 percent tax can reach as high as 0.6 percent depending on how far above the company’s median pay the CEO’s total compensation is. Embedded in the name attached to this new legislation is the belief that disinterested third parties should determine fair and appropriate pay. Whether that be city bureaucrats or voters unconnected to the company in question, the notion that such actors should serve as the arbiters of proper pay levels is nothing more than a form of price-and-wage control. An easy retort to my concern here may be, “Why care about a mere 0.1 percent hit?”Well, if what we are seeking to address is really egregious, unfair, socially contemptible income inequality -- robber-baron stuff -- why should we stop at 0.1 percent? In other words, if the rationale for this 0.1 percent is what its proponents say it is, why are we only talking about 0.1 percent? If a Silicon Valley tech billionaire makes an amount considered to be unfair relative to the money paid to, in all probability, administrative support staff, shouldn’t voters and bureaucrats up the ante here, seeking far more than a 0.1 percent surtax?The fatal flaw of this bill and others like it lies in the idea that fair compensation should be defined by people other than those who have skin in the game -- namely, a company’s principals, board of directors, and ultimately the shareholders to whom it reports. Once one concedes the principle that legislative intervention is required to force those within a company to change the way it pays people, the door is opened to an arbitrary exercise of power. Make no mistake: There is no magic behind the 0.1 percent figure. Setting the tax at that level was arbitrary, and arbitrary judgments are easy to change. Sure, it remains there today, but perhaps 1 percent or 5 percent will be the “right” number next year. And perhaps even higher the year after that. The lack of limiting principle here is frightening, and the slippery slope is easy enough to see.Making it all the more dangerous is that San Francisco is already on the slide. The wealthy are leaving the city in record numbers and at a record pace. And unlike many of the wealthy in New York City still waiting out the pandemic from their beach houses, the San Francisco defectors are not coming back. The very nature of the largest businesses in San Francisco makes them tech-forward, not just able to take advantage of different work environments, but rewarded for doing so. Throw in the recent increase in the transfer tax on expensive real estate in the city, and the slew of recent business tax increases embedded in Proposition F, and there is almost no confusing the message the city is sending to wealthy businesses and their proprietors: Your kind is not wanted here.This brings us back to the key practical problem faced by those who want to soak the rich in a city or a state. In a country that allows mobility, there is no reason for a wealthy employer to stay in inhospitable business environments. San Francisco’s new wealth tax seeks to address that by saying businesses must pay the 0.1 percent tax if they have any office presence in the city, even if they are not headquartered in San Francisco. Why quit while you’re behind? Force company headquarters out, and their satellite offices too.Every day brings a new headline of high-profile companies and executives leaving the Golden State. The 13.3 percent top state tax rate is punitive enough. The regulatory environment is infamous. And while tech company CEOs may not mind the stratospheric price of real estate, their employees certainly do. What a COVID-damaged city such as San Francisco needs is to plead with Sacramento to decrease taxes and regulations, so that its city can retain major revenue contributors. Instead, it has chosen to add insult to injury by adding to incentives to leave the state, and even more inexplicably, by encouraging those who stay in the state to do so just outside the city. That’s right -- San Francisco may not just push successful tech companies to Denver and Austin -- they may even push them to Palo Alto!And while we’re discussing this sort of approach to taxation, it’s worth adding that a true wealth tax on the balance sheets of ultra-high net-worth people does not work. As I wrote back when Elizabeth Warren raised the issue during her presidential campaign, the rationale is misguided, the legal propriety is dubious, the amount of money it raises is over-stated, and the misallocations of capital that it creates are significant. San Francisco’s modified version of a wealth tax is equally misguided. It will lead to diminished revenue as more businesses leave the city, and even more on top of that as new businesses seek a more friendly neighborhood in which to start. Income inequality is not solved by making poor people poorer, or by making them unemployed.San Francisco would be wiser to pursue what it is chartered to do as a city -- addressing high crime and homelessness -- rather than what it is inherently incapable of doing -- serving as the arbiter of what wages should be. So far, it is not doing either very well.

  • Officers face 2 more misdemeanors stemming from protests

    Two Virginia police officers face more misdemeanor charges related to their actions during May protests against police brutality and racial injustice. Richmond police detectives Mark Janowski and Christopher Brown were each charged with two more misdemeanor counts of assault and battery on Monday, building on a previous count of each charge, The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported. Richmond Commonwealth’s Attorney Colette McEachin confirmed the additional indictments but declined to provide further comment.

  • Los Angeles deputies break up party, arrest 158

    Nearly 160 people were arrested during the weekend at an illegal party in Los Angeles County, where coronavirus cases are surging, Sheriff Alex Villanueva said Tuesday. He has previously vowed to crack down on “super-spreader events.” (Dec. 8)

  • Fudge's HUD appointment leaves Democrats with their smallest House majority in a century

    Instead of their projected gains, Democrats lost at least nine House seats in the 2020 election, leaving them with just 222 seats to Republicans' 211. And with the appointments of Reps. Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio) and Cedric Richmond (D-La.) to top Biden administration positions, Democrats will be left with their smallest majority in more than a century, Politico reports.Shortly after the election, President-elect Joe Biden chose Richmond to lead his Office of Public Engagement. And on Tuesday, Biden announced Fudge would be his nominee to head the Department of Housing and Urban Development. That would leave Democrats with just 220 seats in the House once the next Congress is sworn in, and their margin over the GOP could shrink even more when the last two House races are called. As Politico's Jake Sherman notes, that's the smallest majority Democrats have had since 1893, and could make it harder for Democrats to win relief negotiations they're expected to hold early next year.> 220 IS THE SMALLEST MAJORITY since 2001, when Republicans maintained incredible party discipline with a similarly sized majority. In those days, they had TOM DELAY and earmarks to keep things in line -- and they never lost a vote. This included lots of screaming.> > — Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) December 9, 2020Fudge and Richmond's seats are both in safely blue districts, so the Democratic majority will likely grow again once special elections are held to replace them. But when asked about keeping the Democratic caucus united for a few months, Fudge didn't seem incredibly confident. "I just have to hope that we can hold together long enough to make sure that something like that would happen if I should leave," she told Politico.More stories from theweek.com Former Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson says he won't be part of Biden administration Trump's jaw-dropping vaccine screwup Bernie Sanders calls White House's $600 stimulus check proposal 'crap'

  • Contractors working on Trump's border wall illegally smuggled in armed Mexican guards to protect construction sites, whistleblower complaint says

    The complaint accused two companies building the wall in San Diego of hiring "unvetted" Mexican guards and overcharging the government for their work.

  • Thousands of unaccompanied minors arrive at US-Mexico border as Border Patrol grapples with COVID-19 deaths

    Thousands of unaccompanied minors are flooding the U.S.-Mexico border after months of child deportations amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

  • DNA identifies Missouri toddler found in Mississippi in 1982

    Investigators say DNA testing has identified a Missouri toddler whose body was found on a riverbank in Mississippi in 1982. The child long known only as “Baby Jane” or “Delta Dawn” has been identified as 18-month-old Alisha Ann Heinrich. The sheriff of Jackson County, Mississippi, announced the child’s identity at a news conference Friday.