| LIE OF THE YEAR Politifact unveiled its annual “lie of the year” on Thursday. It was a predictable, but serious one: Coronavirus downplay and denial. President Donald Trump was identified as the top purveyor of “confusion and conspiracies” throughout the pandemic, with Politifact noting he “embraced theories that COVID-19 accounted for only a small fraction of the thousands upon thousands of deaths” and “undermined public health guidance for wearing masks and cast Dr. Anthony Fauci as an unreliable flip-flopper.” Of course, as Politifact pointed out, Trump infamously told Bob Woodward that he was deliberately misleading the public about the danger of the pandemic so as to not cause a panic. “To be honest with you, I wanted to always play it down. I still like playing it down. Because I don’t want to create a panic,” Trump said, perhaps as an explanation of his repeated claims that Covid-19 is not dangerous. “But the infodemic was not the work of a single person,” Politifact wrote. The outlet laid out the top voices fueling Covid-19 denial, which included Rush Limbaugh, Tucker Carlson, The Gateway Pundit, Todd Starnes, Breitbart and more. READ MORE FROM AIDAN MCLAUGHLIN
‘Bunch of F*ckers’ President-elect Joe Biden’s campaign manager and soon-to-be White House deputy chief of staff Jen O’Malley Dillon on Thursday addressed the controversy over her claim in a Glamour Magazine interview that Republicans are “a bunch of f*ckers.” “The point that I was really making is an incredibly important point,” O’Malley Dillon said in a virtual event. “And that really is about the president-elect and why he was supported by over 81 million people, and what they were looking for.” She added that she “used some words that I probably could have chosen better.”
Reax Reax
Senator Marco Rubio became a top trending topic on Twitter after his reaction Biden Deputy Chief of Staff Jen O’Malley Dillon’s “f**kers” comment went viral, and tens of thousands of Twitter users reacted in turn.
And former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ripped Trump supporters for "claiming to be offended that a Democratic campaign manager used a curse word" after years of not objecting to Trump
"I don't think so," said Clinton, refraining from using the word deplorable.
Defense Stephanie Cutter, with Biden's inaugural committee, defended the remark, asking if anyone disagrees with the substance of it, and asserting that “Jen just had the guts to say it.”
Williams Ridicules Trump
In keeping with the tone on the tone about the tone, here's an NBC moment: Reminding viewers that over 300,000 Americans have died from the coronavirus, MSNBC’s Brian Williams ruthlessly mocked Trump for obsessing over water pressure enough to roll back efficiency standards.
Scarborough Buries Rand Paul More tone: MSNBC host Joe Scarborough torched Kentucky Senator Rand Paul’s performance at a Senate hearing yesterday about election fraud.
Also Scarborough and his Morning Joe co-hosts ridiculed committee Chairman Ron Johnson by comparing him to Anchorman character Brick Tamland.
Meyers Brutally Mocks Greg Kelly
Seth Meyers mocked conservative “fake news” network Newsmax and show host Greg Kelly as "deluded Trump dead-enders" on his show last night.
In other "news"
Media outlets including CNN and The Hill failed to correct a story that falsely alleged First Lady Melania Trump violated mask rules at a children’s hospital in Washington, D.C. by reading a book to its patients.
JUST IN From Mediaite's Colby Hall:
In a just-released statement, Pfizer revealed that it has “millions more doses sitting in our warehouse but, as of now, we have not received any shipment instructions for additional doses.” The rather stunning bit of information came in an otherwise positive press release titled “Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccine Production and Distribution Working Well.” By any fair measure, Operation Warp Speed has been a phenomenal success in fast-tracking the development, testing, approval, and delivery of a number of privately made vaccines for the Covid-19 pandemic. As of Thursday, over 300,000 American citizens have succumbed to the deadly contagion, which took over 3,600 American lives just Wednesday. There are clearly operational issues in terms of delivering a vaccine that requires a specific temperature, as well as the infrastructure for actual per person delivery. Pfizer’s claim that it was awaiting shipment was first caught by Bloomberg’s Josh Wingrove, who tweeted earlier on Thursday, and reached out to the White House response. As Wingrove states, Kayleigh McEnany noted there would be another 4 million Pfizer vaccine does shipped on Friday, though its unclear if she and Pfizer are referring to the same batch.
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