A Year To Forget?

The coming year will take coordination and patience not seen in 2020 [COVID-19 testing site in Colorado] Michael Ciaglo/Getty Images The Big Picture: Digging Out Of 2020 The COVID-19 pandemic, a resulting economic crisis, racial unrest and a polarizing and contentious presidential election marred 2020, a year many will be happy to leave in their rear-view mirrors. U.S. families endured an indescribable suffering with [20 million Americans diagnosed]( with COVID-19 and almost 350,000 who died from it. [Both are the most of any country in the world](. Two-thirds of Americans said they or someone they know has been diagnosed with the virus, and 40% said they or someone in their household has lost a job or income due to it, according to [a December NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll](. So it’s no wonder that the coronavirus was a driving issue in the 2020 presidential election. Democrat Joe Biden made President Trump’s handling of the crisis a key part of his message. In a year of record turnout, due to increased use of mail-in voting and the hotly polarizing Trump presidency, Biden wound up winning the presidential election with [more votes than anyone in U.S. history]( more than 81 million. But it was far from a strong mandate. Trump won the second most votes at more than 74 million. And Americans remain as polarized as ever. In the election, [red areas got redder and blue areas got bluer](. To make matters worse, Trump has still not accepted the outcome of the election. His lack of concession and endorsement of baseless conspiracy theories have threatened the peaceful transfer of power and undermines confidence in free-and-fair elections, the basis of American democracy itself. That’s in addition to Trump’s bowling over norms and ethics of the U.S. presidency and decorum for public officials that may never fully be reestablished. All of that will make Biden’s job harder. Congress, reflecting the country, is divided, and the country faces an immediate and significant logistical challenge of vaccinating enough Americans to overcome the pandemic. That effort is off to a rocky start. Trump’s administration [promised some 20 million Americans could be vaccinated]( by year’s end, but, as of New Year’s Eve, only between 2 and 3 million had gotten shots. At that pace, it could take years before all Americans could be vaccinated. Put another way, even at 1 million doses a day, it would take almost a year to inoculate everyone. It sets up a 2021 that will see Americans struggle to dig out of a darkness seen only a handful of times in world history. It will take a resolve, patience and a degree of working together that the country did not see in 2020. — Domenico Montanaro, NPR’s senior political editor/correspondent --------------------------------------------------------------- [Jake Sullivan]( Carolyn Kaster/AP Transition Updates Jake Sullivan interview: Incoming national security adviser Jake Sullivan told NPR this week about the Biden administration’s plan to [center the U.S. middle class]( in its foreign policy decision-making. Sullivan also said the Pentagon has not been [providing information to the Biden transition team]( on urgent issues like COVID-19 vaccine distribution and the recent cyberattack against the federal government. Inspectors general: The federal government's 75 inspectors general who serve as watchdogs of government agencies are reeling from chaos in the Trump era, including firings and pressure campaigns from the White House. In response, they're asking lawmakers [for greater job protections]( in the new year. Democrats look back at 2020: Though Democrats were able to defeat President Trump in the 2020 election, they didn't find the same success in down-ballot races. Now, the party is trying to figure out what that means for the future. [Here are five lessons]( Democratic strategists and activists say the party should learn from the 2020 elections. Hawley to object to election certification: GOP Sen. Josh Hawley [says he will object to Congress' certification]( of President-elect Joe Biden's victory in the 2020 election. The move ensures there will be a debate and vote in both the House and Senate to certify Biden's victory, but it won’t change the outcome of the election. — Brandon Carter, NPR Politics social media producer --------------------------------------------------------------- Newsletter continues after sponsor message --------------------------------------------------------------- [Supreme Court]( J. Scott Applewhite/AP ICYMI: Top Stories Congress overrides Trump: With Friday's Senate vote, [Congress overturned President Trump's veto]( of the National Defense Authorization Act, an annual bill that consistently receives bipartisan support. The bill became entwined with politics around coronavirus relief checks, but lawmakers still managed to pass the first veto override of the Trump presidency. Supreme Court supermajority: The high court is starting the second half of its term this month with a new 6-3 conservative majority, potentially the most conservative court since the 1930s. [Here’s what to expect]( this year and what the new composition [could mean for abortion rights]( specifically. Speeding up vaccinations: President-elect Joe Biden is once again warning that the coronavirus pandemic is expected to worsen before it gets better. He is [faulting the Trump administration]( for bungling vaccine distribution and vowing to do better. Meanwhile, the federal government is likely to [fall short of its goal]( of vaccinating 20 million Americans by the end of the year. National security boss exits: The head of the Justice Department’s national security division is preparing to leave office amid a massive hack targeting the U.S. government and big businesses. [In an interview with NPR]( John Demers, who joined the DOJ to help with the fallout of Russia’s attack on the 2016 election, explains how threats have evolved over his tenure and what is still at risk. COVID-19 hits Congress again: Congressman-elect Luke Letlow of Louisiana [died this week from complications of COVID-19](. The 41-year-old Republican was set to be sworn in as a U.S. representative on Jan. 3. — Dana Farrington, NPR Politics digital editor --------------------------------------------------------------- [Flag endorsing QAnon conspiracy]( Stephen Maturen/Getty Images Going Deeper Fact and fiction: A significant number of Americans believe misinformation about the recent presidential election and conspiracy theories like QAnon, according to [a new NPR/Ipsos poll](. The poll results add to mounting evidence that misinformation is gaining a foothold in American society and that conspiracy theories are going mainstream, especially during the coronavirus pandemic. A 2020 surprise: Election officials had feared that millions of ballots would be rejected in this election for reasons such as arriving too late or having missing or mismatched signatures. [It didn’t happen](. In fact, it seems rejection rates went down across the country. It’s not necessarily that voters were making fewer mistakes, though — it appears that people were able to “cure” their ballots in time for them to still count. — Dana Farrington, NPR Politics digital editor --------------------------------------------------------------- [screenshot from For The Sake Of Old Times]( 1504 The Shot: Auld Lang Syne You might be ready to forget 2020. The art film For The Sake of Old Times reminds you why preserving our memories of this historic year is vital. "It's certainly my tendency — and maybe our natural human tendency — to want to rush forward and put this year behind us," explains Tyler Jones, the film's director. "But that may do a disservice, I think, to our memories and those who went before us." [Watch the 4-minute film]( --------------------------------------------------------------- Stream your local NPR station. 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