Today’s edition of quick hits:
* The end of the first phase of the impeachment trial: “The Senate adjourned for the day with House managers having wrapped their presentation. In closing, [Rep. Jamie Raskin] wished the senators ‘good luck in your deliberations.’”
* Vaccine news: “President Biden is expected to announce Thursday afternoon that his administration has secured deals for another 200 million doses of coronavirus vaccine as promised last month, according to three people familiar with the matter who were not authorized to discuss it.”
* Cabinet: “The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee advanced President Biden’s picks to lead the Education Department and Labor Department on Thursday with broad bipartisan votes.”
* Among the most important of Trump’s many lies: “President Donald J. Trump was sicker with Covid-19 in October than publicly acknowledged at the time, with extremely depressed blood oxygen levels at one point and a lung problem associated with pneumonia caused by the coronavirus, according to four people familiar with his condition.”
* A two-hour chat: “President Joe Biden spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping by phone Wednesday evening for the first time since he took office, the White House said.”
* Responding to the SolarWinds attack: “The White House on Wednesday said it had selected a top National Security Agency official to lead the Biden administration’s response to the sprawling SolarWinds hack, a decision disclosed after growing pressure from lawmakers for more information about the breach.”
* The ’emergency’ wasn’t real anyway: “President Joe Biden has officially ended the ‘national emergency’ that President Donald Trump declared in order to take money from the Pentagon to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. The White House released a letter Thursday from Biden to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi notifying Congress that he had rescinded his predecessor’s February 2019 proclamation.”
* Separating families: “The White House is expected to select Michelle Brane of the Women’s Refugee Commission as the executive director of the task force to reunite migrant families separated by the Trump administration, three sources familiar with the decision tell NBC News.” * Pompeo isn’t done generating ugly headlines: “The U.S. State Department spent more than $10,000 on customized pens ordered from China to dole out as gifts for guests for then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s dinner guests, new documents show, while Pompeo was publicly pushing an aggressive stance toward Beijing.” * A story we’ve been following: “In the final months of the Trump administration, senior Justice Department officials repeatedly sought to block federal prosecutors in Manhattan from taking a crucial step in their investigation into Rudolph W. Giuliani’s dealings in Ukraine, delaying a search warrant for some of Mr. Giuliani’s electronic records, according to people with knowledge of the matter.” 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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