Today’s edition of quick hits:
* Baghdad: “Twin suicide bombings ripped through a busy market in the Iraqi capital Thursday, killing at least 28 people and wounding 73 others, officials said.”
* Fauci looked like a new man today: “Dr. Anthony Fauci, one of the nation’s top public health experts, said in his first press briefing since President Joe Biden took office that the new administration was committed to being ‘completely transparent, open and honest.’”
* FBI: “President Joe Biden has confidence in FBI Director Christopher Wray and plans to keep him in his role, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Thursday.”
* The Michael Ellis story sure is interesting: “The director of the National Security Agency on Wednesday put the agency’s top lawyer on administrative leave days after the Pentagon ordered the installation of the ex-GOP operative in the job, according to a U.S. official familiar with the matter.”
* Peter Robb is the first firing of the new team: “The Biden administration fired the general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board, a Trump appointee deeply unpopular with prominent labor unions, according to a White House official.”
* There’s a lot going on this week, but we’re going to have to talk about this: “The Army falsely denied for days that Lt. Gen. Charles A. Flynn, the brother of disgraced former national security adviser Michael Flynn, was involved in a key meeting during its heavily scrutinized response to the deadly assault on the U.S. Capitol.”
* Outgoing CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield reflected on the pandemic response: “My greatest disappointment was the lack of consistency of public health messaging and the inconsistency of civic leaders to reinforce the public health message. You can read between the lines what that means — ‘civic leaders.’” * Interesting case: “Parler has lost an early bid to force Amazon.com Inc. to resume providing web-hosting services for the social network. A federal judge in Seattle ruled Thursday that Parler’s claims didn’t meet the threshold for securing a preliminary injunction, though the court wasn’t yet dismissing the company’s claims against Amazon.” * I meant to mention this yesterday: “The Justice Department informed Senator Richard M. Burr, Republican of North Carolina, on Tuesday that it would not pursue insider trading charges against him, quietly ending a months-long investigation into his dumping of hundreds of thousands of dollars in stock in the turbulent early days of the coronavirus pandemic.” See you tomorrow.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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