Welcome to the Washington Free Beacon’s morning newsletter, your comprehensive briefing on the Enemies of Freedom. To get this newsletter sent straight to your inbox every morning, sign up here.
OFFICER DOWN … "How Kamala Harris’s Campaign Unraveled," via NYT: In one instance after another, Ms. Harris and her closest advisers made flawed decisions about which states to focus on, issues to emphasize, and opponents to target, all the while refusing to make difficult personnel choices to impose order on an unwieldy campaign, according to more than 50 current and former campaign staff members and allies …
"You can’t run the country if you can’t run your campaign," said Gil Duran, a former aide to Ms. Harris and other California Democrats who’s now the editorial page editor of the Sacramento Bee.
STONE-COLD THIEF … "Gillum Lays Claim To 100K New Florida Voters, But Numbers Don't Add Up," via POLITICO: Former Tallahassee mayor [Andrew Gillum]’s Forward Florida Action, a voter registration group founded after the Democrat’s failed 2018 bid for Florida governor, said earlier this month that more than 100,000 new people were added to state voter rolls between April and the end of October because of its efforts …
But the Florida Division of Elections tells a different story. Outside groups like Gillum’s added fewer than 27,000 voters to the rolls between January and the end of September, according to state data.
THE OLD MAN AND THE RV … "Biden kicks off ‘No Malarkey’ bus tour in push to regain momentum in Iowa," via FOX NEWS: Frontrunner [Joe Biden]’s eight-day bus tour is part of an effort to sharpen his pitch before the Feb. 3 caucuses as polls have shown Biden slipping in the first-in-the-nation state. The tour will cover 18 counties and is a play on one of Biden’s most well-known phrases.
SOMETHING TO HIDE … "EXCLUSIVE: Hunter Biden Demands His Financial Records Are Kept SECRET By Court In Child Support Suit Following Claims Of Significant Debts - But Baby Mama Lunden Roberts Refuses To Agree," via DAILY MAIL: The 49-year-old filed the motion for a Protective Order of his financial records in the Arkansas Circuit Court of Independence on Wednesday, citing fears that such information would be used "maliciously" by the media if disclosed publicly.
"The likelihood that [Biden's] private records will be used in an inappropriate or malicious manner for reasons that have absolutely nothing to do with these proceedings is exceedingly high and should not be tolerated by the court," the filing reads.
OH YEAH, THOSE GUYS … "Joe Sestak ends 2020 presidential bid," via POLITICO: During his longshot bid, Sestak struggled to gain name recognition, was left with 0 percent support in most polling, and had not qualified for any of the Democratic debates. He said in his statement on Sunday that without the "privilege of national press," he could no longer ask people to sacrifice resources for his campaign.
"Steve Bullock drops out of Democratic presidential race," via NBC NEWS: Bullock will not run for Montana’s U.S. Senate seat up for grabs in 2020, said Galia Slayen, the campaign’s communications director. He has one year remaining in his term as governor.
CORBYN PLAYS TO HIS BASE … "Terrorists should not be forced to serve full sentence in prison, Jeremy Corbyn says," via THE TELEGRAPH: Terrorists should not be forced to serve their full sentences in prison, Jeremy Corbyn has said, after a jihadi was released early to kill two people in the London Bridge terror attack …
The Labour leader was asked by Sky News' Sophy Ridge whether those convicted of terror offenses should serve their sentences in full.
He said: "I think it depends on the circumstances and depends on the sentence and crucially depends on what they've done in prison."
AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! … "U.S. Posts First Month in 70 Years as a Net Petroleum Exporter," via BLOOMBERG: Soaring output from shale deposits led by the Permian Basin of West Texas and New Mexico has been the main driver of the transition—but America’s status as a net exporter may be fragile. Many Texas wildcatters are predicting a rapid decline in production growth next year, while some Democratic contenders for the White House have called for a ban on fracking—the controversial drilling technique that unleashed the boom.
FAKE NEWS FINALLY HAS CONSEQUENCES … "EXCLUSIVE: Newsweek reporter fired for Trump Thanksgiving story blames editor," via WASHINGTON EXAMINER: The Newsweek reporter who was fired after writing an inaccurate article about President Trump's Thanksgiving Day plans is deflecting some of the blame onto her editor.
Newsweek initially published the article Thursday morning, before the president's trip to Afghanistan was announced publicly. The story's initial headline was, "How is Trump spending Thanksgiving? Tweeting, golfing, and more."
ONE-TRACK MIND … "MSNBC Covers Ousted Navy Secretary… With Graphic of the Wrong Richard Spencer," via MEDIAITE: Before going to break, [Joy] Reid quickly issued a correction and said, "Earlier in this segment, as we were talking about former Navy Secretary Richard Spencer, we mistakenly showed the wrong image of white supremacist Richard Spencer. Very deeply sorry for that mistake."
MAY THE FORCE BE WITH THEM … "'Star Wars' actor Billy Dee Williams identifies as gender fluid," via TEGNA: The actor we all know as the cool, cape-clad Lando Calrissian in 1980's "Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back" has revealed, in an interview with Esquire, that they identify as gender fluid.
The now 82-year-old actor, Billy Dee Williams, told the magazine, "I say 'himself' and 'herself,' because I also see myself as feminine as well as masculine," going on to say, "I'm a very soft person. I'm not afraid to show that side of myself."
MUGGED BY REALITY … "Under Progressive Policing, Transit Crime Surges in NYC, SF," by WFB’s Charles Fain Lehman: Violent crime on San Francisco's Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system rose by 115 percent between 2014 and 2018, culminating in three homicides within a week. New York City's subway system, meanwhile, has seen a 10 percent increase in total crime in the last year.
The underlying causes of these crime spikes, experts tell the Washington Free Beacon, remain unclear. But the spikes cast serious doubt on the experiments in progressive prosecution and policing both cities are currently engaged in. As America's two-decade crime decline begins to plateau, the upswing in lawlessness in these public spaces may indicate what other cities can expect if they adopt a similar approach.
ONE STEP AT A TIME …
WRITTEN WITHOUT CONSENT … "REVIEW: ‘How To Beat Trump’ by Mark Halperin," by WFB’s Andrew Stiles: No one wanted Mark Halperin to write a book. Shunned from public life in 2017 after numerous (ex-)colleagues at ABC News accused him of sexual misconduct, the disgraced pundit's analysis of the upcoming presidential election was not in particularly high demand. Nevertheless, he persisted, even as the market withheld its consent ...
In his introduction, Halperin teases the reader by promising the "unvarnished, fuss-free, straight-talking, no-nonsense, God's-honest, real-news truth" from the experts he interviewed. It is a preview of things to come, but only in the sense that it betrays the author's pathological obsession with adjectives. One is never enough …
There's also plenty of network-quality pablum. "You are going to have to find the right tone and say the right things," says former Bernie Sanders strategist Tad Devine. Former Michigan governor Jennifer Granholm, on whether to emphasize rallying the base or persuading swing voters, says, "I think it is a false choice. I think you have to do both."
DAYS SINCE JOE BIDEN DID A SUNDAY SHOW: 1,086. Come back, Joe!
"They have him in the candidate-protection program." —Fmr. Obama Chief Strategist David Axelrod
Thanks for reading! Send tips to rutz@freebeacon.com.