Today’s edition of quick hits.
* The shutdown deadline is tomorrow night: “The House passed a stopgap measure Wednesday to give Congress an extra week to complete an overdue omnibus spending package. The short-term continuing resolution, which passed on a mostly party-line vote of 224-201, would give lawmakers until Dec. 23 to complete final fiscal 2023 appropriations, brushing up against Christmas Eve for a final omnibus vote.”
* Combatting Covid: “White House officials on Thursday announced steps to provide more Covid testing, vaccinations and supplies as case numbers tick up in another winter wave of coronavirus infections. The Biden administration says it will offer more free at-home Covid tests, boost efforts to vaccinate nursing home residents and prepare supplies that can be sent to states in need.”
* I’ll look forward to seeing the retractions from conspiracy theorists who argued the body-cam footage would bolster their weird ideas: “It was as quick as it was brutal — captured in just a few seconds of grainy video from a police body camera. Arriving at the home of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, two officers find an intruder and Ms. Pelosi’s husband, Paul, standing calmly, each with a hand on a hammer that the police demand they drop. Just then, the video shows, the intruder takes control, wields the weapon over his head and slams it with full force.”
* Giuliani’s troubles: “The D.C. Bar’s disciplinary counsel recommended Thursday that Rudy Giuliani be disbarred after a hearing panel tentatively determined he likely violated at least one professional conduct rule in his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election in Pennsylvania.”
* Puerto Rico’s future: “The House voted Thursday in favor of the Puerto Rico Status Act, which seeks to resolve the U.S. territory’s status and its relationship to the United States through a binding plebiscite. In a 232-191 vote, the bill was passed by 216 Democrats and 16 Republicans. All votes against the bill came from Republicans.”
* Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s Wall Street Journal op-ed makes a persuasive case that the Biden administration’s economic policies have been a success.
* In Michigan: “A judge on Thursday handed down the longest prison terms so far in the plot to kidnap Michigan’s governor, sentencing three men who forged an early alliance with a leader of the scheme before the FBI broke it up in 2020.” * JFK documents: “President Joe Biden’s administration released more than 13,000 records of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination Thursday, but it fell short of fully complying with the spirit of a 30-year-old law demanding transparency by now.” * Some adherents of the QAnon delusion apparently think that Elon Musk is sending them messages: “Twitter owner Elon Musk’s boosting of far-right memes and grievances has injected new energy into the jumbled set of conspiracy theories known as QAnon, a fringe movement that Twitter and other social networks once banned as too extreme.” 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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