Hard-right Candidate Wins First Round Of Romania’s Presidential Election - The New York Times

“Diplomatic and depressed as they have been in public, a small group of Democratic governors are deep into behind-the-scenes preparations and deliberations over how to balance the politics of pushing back on what they are expecting from President-elect Donald Trump’s next turn in the White House,” CNN reports. “Since long before the election, they’ve been poring through Project 2025 — it’s helpful, several Democratic governors told CNN, to have a blueprint in public.

“President-elect Donald Trump bolstered his national profile on NBC’s The Apprentice before first running for the White House. Now he’s turned his second transition into a casting call, pulling from the ranks of entertainment and media to find loyal allies to carry out his agenda,” Bloomberg reports. “While critics say some of Trump’s picks are short on experience for the agencies they are being tapped to run, they offer to bring a different set of qualities, including telegenic looks or a flair for showmanship that play well on screen.

Jon Favreau: “Even if we don’t agree with the views of leftists or liberals or Never Trumpers or MAGA Republicans, we understand them (or at least we think we do). The people whose views we don’t understand tend to be the people who simply don’t follow politics that closely.” “And yet, that’s most Americans.” “This majority still votes, but not in every election.

“We’re in a very, very dangerous world right now, reminiscent of before world war two. Even the slogan is the same. ‘America First.’ That was what they said in the ’30s.” –Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), in an interview with the Financial Times.

Andrew Egger: “How are House Republicans taking the news that Donald Trump wants to see their colleagues who served on the January 6th Committee put in jail? For a remarkable number, the response has been somewhere between open and enthusiastic.” Said Rep. James Comer (R-KY): “With politicians, if you’ve used a congressional committee and you’ve lied and tried to set people up and falsely imprisoned people, then you should be held accountable.” Said Rep.

“Luigi Mangione, who has been charged with killing Brian Thompson, the chief executive of UnitedHealthCare, was found with a notebook that detailed plans for the shooting,“ the New York Times reports. Wrote Mangione: “What do you do? You wack the CEO at the annual parasitic bean-counter convention. It’s targeted, precise, and doesn’t risk innocents.”