Good morning and happy Monday to all who celebrate. There are nine days until Christmas, 16 days until 2025, 18 days until the new Congress is sworn in, and 35 days until Donald Trump is inaugurated. More on that below.

PRESIDENCY

🖊️ Biden grants Christmastime clemency to 1,500

President Biden gets sent off to the great Oval Office in the sky next month, but he’s making the most of the five weeks he has left in power. The president granted two types of clemency to 1,500 people in a end-of-term Christmastime act of mercy. While the recipients and their loved ones are certainly grateful, reactions from others are… mixed. But, hey. Ya can’t win ‘em all.

• 1,499 people received commutations. Their convictions remain on their records but their prison sentences are lowered or removed entirely.

• 39 people received full pardons. They’ll be released from prison (if applicable) and will have full citizenship rights, like the right to vote, restored.

Why grant clemency? The White House said the grantees were serving long sentences under old laws. Were they convicted today, they'd have already been freed. And they've all been serving their sentences at home for at least one year under old pandemic rules.

• All 39 pardon recipients had served time for non-violent offenses, many of which were drug-related. Some are honorably discharged veterans and many completed college degrees after their sentences.

Why be mad about it? Very few of these 1,500 people are controversial. But wowee, a few are real doozies. Among them is former Pennsylvania Judge Michael Conahan. This guy took bribes from private prisons in exchange for putting children behind bars. Josh Shapiro, Pennsylvania’s Democratic governor, said Biden got this one “absolutely wrong.”

• Other spicy names on the list include a tax cheat who cost the government $1.63 billion, a prolific drug dealer, and an ex-doctor who diluted cancer drugs.

Future: With so little time remaining in office, granting clemency is an easy way for an outgoing president like Biden to cement his legacy. He’s expected to sign more in the coming days.

GOVERNMENT

⚖️ A federal appeals court struck down the Nasdaq stock exchange’s diversity rule. The rule required listed companies to put at least one woman, racial minority, or gay person on their boards of directors or explain why they won’t. The rule was approved by the government’s financial regulators at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in 2020. The court ruled that the SEC overstepped its authority and, under the 1934 law that created it, didn’t have the power to enact such a requirement.

💰️ The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) finalized a new rule capping bank overdraft fees at $5. The CFPB called overdraft fees a “legal loophole” and said the cap will save consumers up to $5 billion each year. Banks say the rule will actually harm consumers by forcing them to stop covering overdrafts in the first place. Should it survive a court challenge, the rule will kick in next October.

🗳️ It’s been literal weeks since we’ve said this, but Congress is again racing to pass a last-minute budget deal to avoid a government shutdown on Saturday. Turns out three-month budgets come back to bite you, oh, about three months after passing them. They’re squabbling over aid for farmers right now but we expect a resolution ASAP. Because if there’s one thing Congress hates more than writing budgets on time, it’s writing budgets while their families eat cookies and pretend to enjoy Elf on the Shelf.

POLITICS

🏛️ Pelosi breaks hip as Kamala considers future

Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) took a career tumble from “House speaker” to “lame, normie representative” after Democrats lost control of the House in 2023. She took another tumble last week on a congressional trip to Luxembourg. Sadly, this one was of the “down the stairs” variety.

• Pelosi, 84, broke her hip in the fall but is thankfully doing well after a quick hip replacement surgery at a U.S. military hospital in Germany.

• She was elected to a 20th two-year term in Congress last month.

Kamala Harris is trying to decide what’s next. Does she prep for another presidential bid in 2028? Or does she try to rebuild her status with an easier run for governor of California in 2026?

• The VP isn’t the only losing Democrat considering a comeback. Some of her friends in the House are already angling to get their (soon-to-be) old jobs back in 2026.

Former Almost Vice President Tim Kaine Walz still exists. He’s looking for a way to help Democrats show that they’re “focused on the things” voters actually care about.

TRIVIA

Drones. So hot right now. The Department of Homeland Security says the mysterious flying objects over New Jersey are neither dangerous nor foreign. The FBI is investigating and Congress is on the case, too. If you’re #TeamUFO, you’re in good company. Which future U.S. president filed a report in 1973 documenting his 1969 sighting of a UFO?

Hint: This guy was a state governor at the time. Miraculously, he’s still alive today.

TRANSITION

🥳 Trump’s inaugural committee rakes in the dough

Everybody loves a winner. He only received ~50% of America’s vote last month, but a new survey found that 54% of Americans are “comfortable and prepared to support” Donald Trump as they settle into their seats on the Trump train. A whopping 73% of people want the military deployed at the southern border and the same number want him to take an axe to government spending.

• Not all of Trump’s plans are popular, though. Just 43% of people are on board with his desire to pardon January 6 convictions.

Trump’s inauguration may not have Hollywood’s best in tow, but it won’t be for lack of cash thanks to deep-pocketed Silicon Valley donors. Amazon and Perplexity AI joined Meta in throwing $1 million of corporate cash on the party pile. Now OpenAI’s Sam Altman has one-upped them all by donating $1 million of his personal fortune to ensure Trump’s inaugural festivities are can’t-miss events.

• Sick parties are apparently not Chinese President Xi Jinping's cup of tea. He declined Trump's invitation to attend, opting instead to be repped by China’s ambassador to the United States.

ABC News will give the new president $15 million. But this one’s not voluntary. The cash will go to his future "presidential foundation and museum" as part of a defamation settlement after ABC anchor George Stephanopoulos said 10 times on-air that Trump "raped" E. Jean Carroll.

Pete Hegseth, Trump's pick for defense secretary, says he's got nothing to hide. He plans to release the woman who accused him of sexual assault in 2017 from her confidential settlement agreement. Hegseth claims the encounter was consensual. Should his accuser go public with her side of the story, however, she might be met with a defamation suit.

• Critics last week claimed Hegseth lied about being accepted to West Point. In a victory for the “never ever throw away anything ever” crowd, he won that battle by producing his 1999 acceptance letter.

BRIEFS

● SpaceX wants its Starbase launch site, which sits at the very southern tip of coastal Texas, to be incorporated as a new city. The move would streamline the company's building process but faces opposition from nearby environmentalists.

● The president of Argentina is now Italian. Italy’s prime minister made Javier Milei an Italian citizen in keeping with Italy’s “right of blood” law and Milei’s Italian ancestry. Critics say the move is a slap in the face to actual Italian immigrants.

● The U.S. is in "direct contact" with the Syrian rebel group that toppled the nation's dictator, said Secretary of State Antony "no H" Blinken. He also noted that his State Department is searching for an American man who went missing in Syria in 2012.

● South Korea’s parliament impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol on Saturday over his bonkers declaration of martial law. He’s temporarily been booted from power while a court considers the issue. They’ve got 180 days to decide his future.

● NATO chief Mark Rutte thinks NATO countries should boost their defense budgets back up to Cold War levels. He says a "wartime mindset" is needed to counter Russia and that reviving the "hollowed out" European defense industry is just the solution.

QUOTE

ANSWER

In 1973, while serving as governor of Georgia, future President Jimmy Carter filed a form with the International UFO Bureau documenting a 1969 incident in which he and some friends saw a mysterious, color-changing object floating in the Georgia sky one night. He later wrote that he assumed it came from a nearby military base rather than Mars or Krypton or something.

By the way, in case there was any doubt, Carter’s office announced that the former president will not attend Trump’s inauguration. Because, you know, he’s 100 and has been in hospice care for nearly two years. Are there world records for things like that?