THE DAILY NEWSLETTER  - WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 6, 2021  🤞🏼

Media Winners & Losers

MEDIA WINNERS:
Anderson Cooper & Andy Cohen

The coronavirus pandemic forced a lot of people to dial down their New Year’s Eve plans, but the CDC guidelines urging people to stay home may have been good news for CNN, which had its best New Year’s Eve ever, ratings-wise.

It was a big ratings win and matched by a "buzz" win for both Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen on the night of and the day after.

CNN’s New Year’s Eve Live with Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen, which aired from 8 p.m. to 12:30 a.m., was the most-watched show in all of cable on Dec. 31, 2020. More than 3.36 million total viewers tuned in, 1.21 million of them in the key demographic of viewers age 25-54. New Year’s Eve Live with Don Lemon and Brooke Baldwin, from 12:30 a.m. to 1:30 a.m., dropped off a little bit, with 2.52 million total viewers, 953,000 of them in the demo.

The big viewer turnout – and maybe the fact that both MSNBC and Fox News aired pre-taped or repeat programs at midnight – boosted CNN to a big win in prime time on New Year’s Eve, with more viewers than MSNBC (822,000 total, 117,000 in the demo) and Fox News (1.41 million total, 251,000 in the demo) combined.

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MEDIA LOSER:
Donald Trump Jr.

Fox News cut away from Donald Trump Jr. when his speech at a pro-Trump rally in Washington, D.C. turned profane.

The adult son of President Donald Trump spoke ahead of his father on Wednesday, during a rally held to protest the 2020 election and Congressional certification of Joe Biden’s victory.

The Trump scion used much of his furious speech to swear political vengeance on Republicans who do not back his father and allies in their attempt to overthrow the election.

“This isn’t their Republican Party anymore. This is Donald Trump’s Republican Party,” he proclaimed. “If you’re gonna be the zero and not the hero, we’re coming for you and we’re going to have a good time doing it!”

The speech went on with more angry rhetoric against Democrats before Trump Jr. exclaimed to the crowd, “Thank you for standing up to the bullsh*t!”

He then began to rail against a study suggesting transgender women perform better in female sports, screaming “No shit!”

For whatever reason, Fox News chose that moment to cut away from Trump Jr. and threw their feed back to Sandra Smith on America’s Newsroom.

 

The A-Block

JUST IN

PRESIDENT-ELECT JOE BIDEN TO PICK MERRICK GARLAND FOR ATTORNEY GENERAL.

WATCH LIVE

President Donald Trump speaks at his last rally before the electoral college results are certified. It's called the Save America rally, which is happening with the Stop the Steal event. Watch live or see the full video after the fact here.

Congress counts and certifies electoral college votes. Watch live or in full after the fact here.

Also Trump's Twitter

It got pretty hairy on his Twitter, too.

Trial by combat?

Rudy Giuliani called for “trial by combat” as he spoke at the “Stop the Steal” protest rally in Washington D.C. over President Trump’s 2020 election defeat.

Relentless Pence Pressure

Trump opened the “Save America Rally” by absolutely pounding on Vice President Mike Pence to do the “right thing” and object to the Congressional certification of the Electoral College. He even questioned his courage.

Trump has been hammering his very loyal Vice President very hard over the past few days, putting increased pressure on Pence to send state-certified results of the 2020 election in a brazen attempt to overturn the election

'LOL'

Georgia Voting System Implementation Manager Gabriel Sterling let out a laugh as he smacked down President Trump's latest false claim about the Georgia runoff election mere minutes after Trump posted it.

Trollol

Former Secretary of State and 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton was enjoying a piping hot cup of schadenfreude Wednesday morning as the Democrats appear poised to regain control of the Senate, posting a tweet mocking the pending title change for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Blame Trump

Conservatives begin to blame Donald Trump for Georgia losses.

Chaos

On the eve of pro-Trump protests in Washington, D.C., chaos broke out in the city’s streets as MAGA supporters violently clashed with police.

Even more supporters are on the streets today.

‘We Have Never Seen Anything Like This’

Just hours before what is typically a perfunctory and ceremonial procedure by which a joint session of Congress certifies the results of the Electoral College, Fox News anchor Chris Wallace put in stark relief just how unique the 2021 version will be.

Why? Because a cabal of 13 sitting Republican Senators and well over 100 Republican Representatives have each pledged to object to the results in an effort to overturn the election, or speciously request an independent audit of various states election results, ignoring the fact that each state in question has already investigated their election integrity before certifying the results.

Wallace continued to provide his independent perspective when he told anchor Bill Hemmer that what is about to unfold in the joint session, saying “we have never seen anything like this.”

Read the rest from Mediaite's Colby Hall.

Must See Clip

Scary.

A reporter abruptly ended an interview with an anti-mask activist when their exchange veered into scary territory.

Inside Edition‘s Lisa Guerrero reported on a group called “Shop Free Los Angeles,” whose members — as the name suggests — deliberately descend on various retail stores to flout Covid restrictions and post videos of their confrontations online.

The report featured several jaw-dropping scenes that make it a must-see.

Links We Like

Never Forget the Names of These Republicans Attempting a Coup
- Thomas Friedman, New York Times
Biden will fail and voters will quickly realize that they screwed up
- Daniel Gallington, Washington Times

Trump’s election-stealing plot is dangerous — even if it fails
- Zack Beauchamp, Vox

My Republican colleagues’ ploy threatens the future of the electoral college
- Rep. Ken Buck, Washington Post
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