Friday Morning Minute

Good morning, and welcome to RedState's "Morning Minute" — a brief glimpse at which stories are trending at the moment and a look ahead at what the day may bring. Consider this your one-stop shop for news to kickstart your day.

TOP O' THE MORNIN'

When the Polling Is Worse Than 'Damn Lies'

This is another reason to always keep in mind the political environment, and to not live and die by the public polls.

Sen. Kennedy Delivers Epic Thanksgiving Message to Trump Supporters and Hollywood Types Who Insult Them

The problem with those on the left: They were roundly shown the door in a massive win with the country saying, yes, we want to "stay deplorable."

Winning: Trump Sends '70s Dance Hit Shooting Straight to the Top of the Charts

Happy Thanksgiving, RedState readers! I'm that much more thankful this year now that we have some sanity in the House, the Senate, and the Oval Office. I bet the Village People are also feeling pretty grateful this year.

WHAT'S ON TAP?

Today on Capitol Hill...

The critters may still be enjoying food comas today, but never fear — they'll be back at it again next week on the Hill. Just a few weeks left in this 118th Congress, and a weighty ToDo list remains.

White House What's Up

President Joe Biden has a quiet schedule today — not a thing on it. He had what I thought an interesting turn visiting a Nantucket fire station on Thursday, with some comments that I read to be surprisingly benign — even optimistic — as to President-elect Donald Trump. Others had a dimmer interpretation.

Vice President Kamala Harris and Second (not a) Gentleman Doug Emhoff offered a hollow Thanksgiving message that either was pre-recorded at the same time as Kamala's odd video message from Tuesday evening...or she's being held hostage in a drab hotel room with only a drab suit to wear. I do worry about her.

Full Court Press...

Mostly a quiet day for the courts in the wake of Thanksgiving. As noted previously, the Daniel Penny trial will resume in New York on Monday with closing arguments.

Sean "Diddy" Combs' third(?) motion for bail was denied by Judge Arun Subramanian on Wednesday. The full order may be viewed here, but the reasons included by the judge in denying the motion include the fact that Combs is charged "with serious and violent crimes," that there is direct evidence of his violence, that there is a serious risk of witness tampering, that "there is evidence that Combs violated Bureau of Prisons regulations during his pretrial detention to obscure his communications with third parties," as well as a misrepresentation made to the court by defense counsel regarding the status of notes on legal pad. (It's a long story, but the bottom line is defense counsel screwed up.)

There's been a twist in the trial of former New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez (D). He's seeking a new trial "after prosecutors admitted that his jury was allowed to review improper evidence during deliberations." There were nine exhibits included on the laptop provided to the jury that should have been redacted. The Government maintains, however, that the mistake does not warrant setting aside the verdict. Briefing on the issue will be complete by December 10, so we'll learn sometime after that whether a retrial is in the offing or not.

MORNING MUSING

It's a chilly Friday morning here in the heartland, with snow in the forecast for tomorrow, and I am not a fan. I miss my Summer. I miss my pool. I miss my sunshine. I take a smidge of solace in knowing that we'll hit the darkest day in just over three weeks and then start climbing back toward the light. I hope you all enjoyed a lovely Thanksgiving and aren't overwhelmed by the Black Friday rush. I won't be, as I'll be here at my RedState command post all day long, but truth be told, I'm fine with that. I'm not a big shopper, to begin with, and I don't know that you could pay me enough money to battle the sale-crazed hordes on Black Friday.