The Daily 202: The chain of ineptitude and institutional failure that facilitated Ru ssia’s election interference

The headquarters of the Democratic National Committee (Gary Cameron/Reuters)

THE BIG IDEA: Incompetent people work inside every important organization in Washington. Often they don’t know who they are, but their colleagues do. As John F. Kennedy complained after a U.S. spy plane strayed into Soviet airspace during the Cuban missile crisis, “There’s always some son of a b**** who didn’t get the word.”

The tick tock about how hackers broke into the Democratic National Committee and obtained John Podesta’s emails, on the front page of today’s New York Times, offers several cringe-worthy illustrations of the timeless truism that any chain is only as strong as its weakest link. Several weak links, cumulatively, apparently allowed Vladimir Putin’s minions to successfully launch (and win) a cyberwar against the United States of America. Here are five nuggets from the story by Eric Lipton, David Sanger and Scott Shane:

-- The DNC as a whole was woefully but unprepared, but the hapless I.T. contractor was especially in over his head: “When Special Agent Adrian Hawkins of the Federal Bureau of Investigation called the Democratic National Committee in September 2015 to pass along some troubling news about its computer network, he was transferred, naturally, to the help desk. His message was brief, if alarming. At least one computer system belonging to the D.N.C. had been compromised by hackers federal investigators had named ‘the Dukes,’ a cyberespionage team linked to the Russian government. The F.B.I. knew it well: The bureau had spent the last few years trying to kick the Dukes out of the unclassified email systems of the White House, the State Department and even the Joint Chiefs of Staff…

“Yared Tamene, the tech-support contractor at the D.N.C. who fielded the call, was no expert in cyberattacks. His first moves were to check Google for ‘the Dukes’ and conduct a cursory search of the D.N.C. computer system logs to look for hints of such a cyberintrusion. By his own account, he did not look too hard even after Special Agent Hawkins called back repeatedly over the next several weeks — in part because he wasn’t certain the caller was a real F.B.I. agent and not an impostor. ‘I had no way of differentiating the call I just received from a prank call,’ Mr. Tamene wrote in an internal memo…”

FBI Director James Comey walks to the podium at FBI Headquarters in July. (Cliff Owen/AP)

-- Bafflingly, FBI agents did not travel to DNC headquarters (which is about a mile from their office!) when Tamene stopped returning their calls. “Part of the problem was that Special Agent Hawkins did not show up in person at the D.N.C. Nor could he email anyone there, as that risked alerting the hackers that the F.B.I. knew they were in the system. Mr. Tamene’s initial scan of the D.N.C. system — using his less-than-optimal tools and incomplete targeting information from the F.B.I. — found nothing. So when Special Agent Hawkins called repeatedly in October, leaving voice mail messages for Mr. Tamene, urging him to call back, ‘I did not return his calls, as I had nothing to report,’ Mr. Tamene explained in his memo… In November, Special Agent Hawkins called with more ominous news. A D.N.C. computer was ‘calling home, where home meant Russia,’ Mr. Tamene’s memo says, referring to software sending information to Moscow…By March, Mr. Tamene and his team had met at least twice in person with the F.B.I. and concluded that Agent Hawkins was really a federal employee.”

Hillary Clinton visits a Florida campaign office of Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (D-FL), who was trying to fend off a primary challenge. (Melina Mara/The Washington Post)

-- The IT director’s priorities were misplaced. Andrew Brown, the technology director at the DNC, said he knew Tamene was fielding calls from the FBI, but he said he was too distracted by the squabble over the Bernie Sanders campaign improperly accessing Hillary Clinton campaign data to pay much attention.

-- Higher-ups were not notified until it was too late: Debbie Wasserman Schultz, then the DNC chair, and Amy Dacey, the committee’s chief executive, were not notified early on that the committee’s system had likely been compromised. “The D.N.C. executives and their lawyer had their first formal meeting with senior F.B.I. officials in mid-June, nine months after the bureau’s first call to the tech-support contractor,” the story notes.

-- Eventually the DNC replaced its computer system BUT chose not to give the DCCC a heads up: “Though D.N.C. officials had learned that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee had been infected, too, they did not notify their sister organization, which was in the same building, because they were afraid that it would leak.”

-- Donna Brazile, the interim DNC chair, tried twice to get RNC chairman Reince Priebus (the incoming White House chief of staff) to join her in condemning the Russian attacks before the election. He declined.

As one conservative thought leader puts it from his perch at the Council on Foreign Relations:

John Podesta writes emails, which would later be hacked, while he waits to board a bus in New York in June. (Melina Mara/The Washington Post)

-- A typo that might have changed the course of history: A phishing email that originated from a hacking group tied to Russian intelligence landed in John Podesta’s email box on March 19. “Given how many emails Mr. Podesta received through this personal email account, several aides also had access to it, and one of them noticed the warning email, sending it to a computer technician to make sure it was legitimate before anyone clicked on the ‘change password’ button. ‘This is a legitimate email,’ Charles Delavan, a Clinton campaign aide, replied to another of Mr. Podesta’s aides, who had noticed the alert. … With another click, a decade of emails that Mr. Podesta maintained in his Gmail account — a total of about 60,000 — were unlocked for the Russian hackers. Mr. Delavan, in an interview, said that his bad advice was a result of a typo: He knew this was a phishing attack, as the campaign was getting dozens of them. He said he had meant to type that it was an ‘illegitimate’ email.”

Paul Ryan gave Donald Trump a Green Bay Packers jersey at his rally in Wisconsin last night. (Tannen Maury/EPA)

-- Bigger picture: As a republic, we too are really only as strong as our weakest links. As America enters the Age of Trump, I’ve been studying the fragility of institutions throughout U.S. history. It is not always a pretty picture. The framers made many assumptions, namely that the executive would follow certain unspoken norms. This is why the emoluments clause is written so broadly and why the Constitution was only amended to limit a president to two terms after Franklin Roosevelt heedlessly broke with the precedent set by George Washington.

-- There now appears to be a very high chance that Senate Republicans will cave and kowtow to Trump on Rex Tillerson, making him the country’s chief diplomat despite his ties to Putin and evidence that he’s spent his career putting ExxonMobil’s interests ahead of the national interest. Conservatives who care deeply about national security made their fears about Tillerson public, and Trump had a way to save face, but he forged ahead anyway. If Marco Rubio, Lindsey Graham and John McCain fall in line, make no mistake: Trump’s takeaway will be that he doesn’t need to respect his Article I counterparts. The president-elect is testing their resolve.

Mitch McConnell speaks during a Monday news conference at the Capitol. (Susan Walsh/AP)

-- There is already a serious collective action problem on the Hill: Congressional leaders cannot agree on how best to probe the Russian interference. Karoun Demirjian reports: “Senior Republicans want to channel any investigation through the House and Senate intelligence committees, over which they have greater control. But some Democrats, fearing that the results of such an investigation would never be released to the public, are pushing the formation of an independent body of outsiders modeled on the Sept. 11 commission. Still other Republicans would like to see a bipartisan investigation in Congress. … The cacophony of competing voices on Capitol Hill could hamstring the rare, near-universal commitment to dig into allegations Russia interfered with the 2016 election. It may also allow Trump to discredit lawmakers’ efforts as overly partisan.”

High school students protest outside the Supreme Court last month. (Susan Walsh/AP)

-- The courts are supposed to be the strongest bulwark against injustice, because they are the most insulated from majoritarian whims, but the justice system has repeatedly failed to rise to the occasion. The judiciary is only as good as the flawed men and women who don black robes, and Trump is poised to choose the decisive swing justice who could tip the balance of power on the court for a generation.

Caught up in the eugenics craze, for example, the Supreme Court in 1927 upheld a Virginia law allowing for the forcible sterilization of the feeble-minded and intellectually disabled. As Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote in one of the most shameful majority opinions ever, “Three generations of imbeciles are enough.” Nazis involved in the Holocaust cited this in their defense at the Nuremberg Trials, but the decision has still never been overturned. (Adam Cohen devotes 402 pages to the case in his excellent book “Imbeciles.”)

So don’t delude yourself into thinking that this court will automatically protect you or your rights going forward. Maybe spend some time instead reading up on what happened to Carrie Buck, Fred Korematsu, Homer Plessy, Dred Scott or Michael Hardwick.

WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING:

Michael T. Flynn waits for an elevator at Trump Tower. (Kathy Willens/AP)

-- Breaking this morning: A secret U.S. military investigation in 2010 determined that Michael T. Flynn, the retired Army general tapped to serve as Trump’s national security adviser, “inappropriately shared” classified information with foreign military officers in Afghanistan. From Craig Whitlock and Greg Miller: “Although Flynn lacked authorization to share the classified material, he was not disciplined or reprimanded after the investigation concluded that he did not act ‘knowingly’ and that ‘there was no actual or potential damage to national security as a result,’ according to Army records obtained by The Washington Post under the Freedom of Information Act. Flynn has previously acknowledged that he was investigated while serving as the U.S. military intelligence chief in Afghanistan for sharing secrets with British and Australian allies there. … Former U.S. officials familiar with the matter said that Flynn was accused of telling allies about the activities of other agencies in Afghanistan, including the CIA. … The Army files call into question Flynn’s prior assertion that he had permission to share the sensitive information.”

Ryan Zinke arrives at Trump Tower on Monday. (Kena Betan Curkena/AFP/Getty Images)

-- Trump has picked Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-Mont.) to be interior secretary (and he made the Rick Perry pick for energy secretary official this morning). Juliet Eilperin reports: “Zinke, who studied geology as an undergraduate at the University of Oregon and served as a Navy SEAL [until 2008] campaigned for his House seat on a platform of achieving North American energy independence. He sits on the House Natural Resources Committee as well as the Armed Services Committee. A lifelong hunter and fisherman, the 55-year-old Zinke has defended public access to federal lands even though he frequently votes against environmentalists on issues ranging from coal extraction to oil and gas drilling."

Cathy McMorris Rodgers exits a sit-down with Trump last month. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

-- THE BOYS CLUB IS ALIVE AND WELL: Zinke beat out Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), who wanted the job and had been a leading contender. Why? He hit it off with Trump’s oldest son, Don Jr., who is also an avid hunter and loves hearing old war stories.

-- A snub that could come back to haunt him: Trump did not call CMR, number four in House leadership, to tell her he was going with Zinke.

-- As Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway put it on Maggie Haberman's podcast, “I sometimes think I’m in the men’s room at a bachelor party at the Elks club in Republican politics.”

Michael Flynn, Trump lawyer Michael Cohen and Rick Perry huddle in the lobby of Trump Tower. (Albin Lohr-Jones/Pool via Bloomberg)

A WAR ON SCIENCE?

Public servants across the executive branch are terrified. There is widespread concern that Trump will declare not just a war on science but on government scientists. Three important developments on this front:

-- Outgoing officials at the Energy Department have rejected the Trump transition team’s request for “a list of all employees or contractors who have attended” climate change meetings, but it has nonetheless cast a shadow of apprehension over the workforce. From Joe Davidson: “Given civil service protections, it’s not likely department employees would be fired for working on climate change. ‘A greater concern would be that selected employees could be marginalized, i.e., ignored, by new leadership at the department solely based on unfounded conjecture that those employees cannot be trusted by the new political team,’ said John Palguta, a civil service expert with decades of federal government experience. ‘The consequences for contract employees could be greater if a future decision not to renew a contract is influenced by the same unsupported speculation.’ … American Federation of Government Employees President J. David Cox Sr., who represents Energy employees, warned against ‘a return to the political witch hunts of the 1950s.’”

-- Scientists are working frantically to copy reams of government data onto independent servers to safeguard it from any potential political interference. From Brady Dennis: “The efforts include a ‘guerrilla archiving’ event in Toronto, where experts will copy irreplaceable public data, meetings at the University of Pennsylvania focused on how to download as much federal data as possible in the coming weeks, and a collaboration of scientists and database experts who are compiling an online site to harbor scientific information. ‘Something that seemed a little paranoid to me before all of a sudden seems potentially realistic, or at least something you’d want to hedge against,’ said Nick Santos, a [UC Davis environmental researcher] who over the weekend began copying government climate data onto a nongovernment server, where it will remain available to the public. ‘Doing this can only be a good thing. Hopefully they leave everything in place. But if not, we’re planning for that.’”

-- White House bureau chief Juliet Eilperin looks at “Obama's Mad Dash to Protect the Environment” in a piece for Outside Magazine: The president is determined to shift its trajectory as far to the left as possible before Trump takes office in January, she explains. “In many cases, that means exerting every federal lever still available to promote renewable energy, restrict drilling and coal extraction, and safeguard a handful of prized landscapes in the western United States. Within the span of just two weeks after the election, the administration issued a series of key policies aimed at cementing environmental gains. Republicans … have threatened to overturn some of these rules … under [a 1996 law] that has been used successfully just once in its 20-year history.”

Syrians leave a rebel-held area of Aleppo towards the government-held side. (Karam Al-Masri/AFP/Getty Images)

THE ENDGAME IN ALEPPO:

-- The latest: An evacuation deal to rescue trapped rebels and civilians has fallen apart and shelling has resumed. From Louisa Loveluck: “Brokered by Russia and Turkey, the withdrawal had been expected to begin shortly after dawn, with green buses ferrying militants and residents who wished to leave out to other rebel-held areas. It would mark a key milestone in Syria’s more than five year war, potentially ending the violence in one of the most intense and bloody battles of the conflict. But residents said Wednesday that the buses remained grounded and although the evacuation plan was supposed to be accompanied by a ceasefire … by late morning, shelling had resumed. ‘The shelling started again, and bullets,’ said Monther Etaki, a journalist in the area. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group, also said its monitors had witnessed a large explosion in the Salah al-Din district. There was no immediate official explanation for the delay from the government, or from the deal's sponsors.”

-- Rebels believe the hold-up relates to disagreements between Moscow and Tehran, key Assad backers.

-- “Much of the famed city, the largest in Syria, has already been destroyed. The Old City has been gutted. The destruction has been compared to that at Stalingrad and in the Warsaw Ghetto,” writes the New Yorker’s Robin Wright. “The savagery had become primordial."

-- "This morning 20 women committed suicide in order not to be raped," a rebel leader claimed in an interview with the Daily Beast.

-- Widening the aperture: The fight for Aleppo came to symbolize the hopes, the fears and the failures of the Syrian war. The only question now is how the battle ends. Liz Sly, Louisa and Missy Ryan have the latest: "A planned evacuation of civilians from recently-captured enclaves of eastern Aleppo has been stalled for several hours as of Wednesday morning, according to a monitoring group in the area.The deal would see rebel holdouts and perhaps also the civilians still living there evacuated on buses to other rebel-held areas in the north of the province of Aleppo or the nearby province of Idlib, according to Russian officials. ... But exact details were unclear, and U.S. officials said they were doubtful it would be implemented fully, if at all. With the rebels clinging to a tiny pinprick of territory in one corner of the city, it is now only a matter of time before the government reclaims full control..."

-- Uh oh: ISIS appears to have netted a trove of weaponry – potentially including a surface-to-air missile system – since wresting control of the Syrian city of Palmyra this weekend. Thomas Gibbons-Neff reports: Video footage appears to show equipment left behind by Syrian and Russian troops, though it is unclear when it was taken. Images show food bowls still on the table, “with scenes spliced together in a fashion that makes it look as if large stores of ammunition, small arms, heavy machine guns and damaged antiaircraft guns were all left behind.” One segment that shows ammunition crates and an antiaircraft gun appears to be within the confines of the Russian base, given the landscape in the background.

-- A Russian state-run television network ran a segment on its KSO military unit, releasing extremely uncommon battlefield footage of its nascent special ops detachment in Syria. (The unit is thought to be akin to the U.S. military’s elite Delta Force). Thomas Gibbons-Neff reports: “During the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and more recently against the Islamic State, U.S. Special Operations forces have taken advantage of their small numbers, high-tech communication gear and extensive training to achieve battlefield successes often reserved for conventional forces many times their size. Having gleaned this lesson from their American counterparts, the Russians are now implementing such forces for the first time Syria.”

U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power speaks at the U.N. (Seth Wenig/AP)

-- The deepening tensions between Washington and Moscow were reflected in a testy exchange at the Security Council: Ambassador Samantha Power rebuked Assad, Russia, and Iran: "Your forces and proxies are carrying out these crimes. Your barrel bombs and mortars and air strikes have allowed the militia in Aleppo to encircle tens of thousands of civilians in your ever-tightening noose. It is your noose. It should shame you. Instead, by all appearances, it is emboldening you. You are plotting your next assault. Are you truly incapable of shame?" The Russian envoy replied that it was "very strange" for Power to speak "as if she was Mother Teresa." (More from the New Yorker)

-- Obama's former U.S. ambassador to Russia, who is now back teaching at Stanford, responded:

-- Clicker: The Post published a gallery of reader photos capturing the once-beautiful, bustling city of Aleppo before the war began.

Before -- Here is what Aleppo's Umayyad mosque looked like in 2010:

(Reuters/Khalil Ashawi)

After -- Assad's forces flash the sign for victory at the mosque yesterday:

(George OurfalianAFP/Getty)

GET SMART FAST:​​

The Obama administration will curtail some intelligence sharing with Saudi Arabia in response to its strikes on Yemeni civilians, but will expand support in certain areas, reflecting a carrot-and-stick approach as U.S. officials seek to distance themselves from the Yemen campaign without alienating a core Middle Eastern ally. (Missy Ryan)

Longtime Clinton staffer Adam Parkhomenko launched a bid for DNC vice chair. (Buzzfeed)

A handcuffed 26-year-old woman stole a police car in D.C. last night, striking several vehicles as she fled during rush hour to Northern Virginia, where she was detained after a collision. (Martin Weil)

Newt and Callista Gingrich leave Trump Tower recently. (Kevin Hagen/Getty Images)

-- HAPPENING FRIDAY: The 202 Live with Newt Gingrich. Join me on Friday morning at 9 a.m. at The Post’s headquarters for an interview with the former Republican Speaker of the House and Trump campaign surrogate. We’ll talk about the president-elect’s transition and what to expect from the new administration and Republican-controlled Congress. Register to attend here.

Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates, leaving Trump Tower on Dec. 2, is single-handedly responsible for Tillerson getting one of the most important jobs in the world. (Evan Vucci/AP)

THE TILLERSON ROLLOUT:

-- Inside Trump’s surprise decision to tap Rex for State, via Michael Kranish, Anne Gearan, Dan Balz and Philip Rucker: “Trump sat in his office at Trump Tower on Dec. 2 facing the most important choice of his transition to the presidency, and his indecision had set off a war among his top aides.” While those in his camp remained split, Trump insisted he needed more time. He seemed to have misgivings about all of them. “Then, by happenstance, Trump welcomed into his office a man who has served presidents of both parties, Robert M. Gates. Trump asked his guest, a former CIA director and former secretary of defense, what he thought of the four candidates. After Gates ran through his thoughts, it seemed that Trump was ‘looking for a way out.’ … Trump asked if there was someone else to consider. The result was an unexpected decision, nominating as the country’s top diplomat a multinational corporate chief executive who had previously been on nobody’s short list for the job."

-- Trump touted Tillerson’s relationships with unpopular foreign leaders during his “victory lap” tour in Wisconsin last night, saying that his ties to sometimes-hostile countries were a key reason for his selection. John Wagner reports: “‘You know, Rex is friendly with many of the leaders of the world that we don’t get along with,’ [Trump] said, acknowledging that some people see that as a liability. But, Trump added: ‘That’s why I’m doing the deal with Rex.’ ‘People are looking at his résumé, and honestly they’ve never seen a résumé like this before,” Trump said, adding that he has “the insights and talents necessary to help reverse years of foreign policy blunders and disasters.”

Vladimir and Rex huddle in Russia. (Mikhail Klimentyev/AP)

-- Inside Tilllerson’s decades-long relationship with Putin, by Steven Mufson: “In 1997, Exxon sent Tillerson, then a promising executive who had been in Yemen, to Moscow to ‘pick up the relationship and repair it,’ Tillerson later recalled. His predecessor had been kicked out of the country. Tillerson met six different prime ministers over the course of 14 months. The last of those was Putin.[Now], with his nomination, the 64-year-old Tillerson has been thrust into the long-standing U.S. foreign policy divide separating those who value pragmatism and dealmaking from those who attach greater importance to principles, human rights and democracy. This is a divide that cuts across both parties. Should he be confirmed, Tillerson will no longer answer to the more than 93,000 shareholders of ExxonMobil but primarily to a single shareholder named Trump. And he will draw on views refined in industry, not diplomacy. To fans of Tillerson, his relationship with Putin is a sign of his pragmatism, seeking advantage for his company with a blunt, straightforward style … To his critics, however, Tillerson and ExxonMobil come across as arrogant and indifferent."

-- Independent conservative presidential candidate Evan McMullin, a 10-year veteran of the CIA, spoke out against the nomination:

AMERICA, DIVIDED:

-- PolitiFact named fake news its 2016 “lie of the year.” Often, falsehoods “found a willing enabler in Trump, who at times uttered outrageous falsehoods and legitimized made-up reports,” PolitiFact editor Angie Drobnic Holan writes in a column. “For those who care about accuracy and evidence, it’s time to recognize that something really has gone off course." (Read more.)

-- The director of a government-funded nonprofit in West Virginia who took a leave of absence after referring to Michelle Obama as an “ape in heels” is returning to her post and will again receive a taxpayer-funded paycheck. Her racist comments were part of an exchange with the town's mayor, who subsequently resigned from her position. (Kristine Guerra and Lindsey Bever)

-- An Orange Coast college professor who was secretly recorded telling students that Trump’s election was an “act of terrorism” last month said that violent threats have since forced her to flee the state of California. “You want communism, go to Cuba … try to bring it to America and we’ll put a [expletive] bullet in your face,” read one email. (Peter Holley)

-- Former child star Susan Olsen, who won hearts for her bright-eyed, pigtailed portrayal of Cindy Brady on “The Brady Bunch,” was fired from her modern-day gig as a a conservative talk show host after going on a vulgar, homophobic rant. “I hope you meet your karma SLOWLY AND PAINFULLY,” Brady told openly gay actor Leon Acord-Whiting during a profanity-laced tirade. (Amy B Wang)

-- Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke, once thought to be a contender to lead DHS, referred to media organizations as "subversive" as he warmed up the crowd at Trump's rally last night. “Trump and his campaign used the ‘rope-a-dope strategy’ on the ‘fake news network,’ Clarke said, calling out several national media organizations by name as he accused them of trying to ‘sabotage and undermine’ the president-elect. ‘We’re going to have to do a lot more heavy lifting to help [Trump] and [Pence] push back against this subversive movement,’ Clarke told the crowd. ‘Do you have the pitchforks and torches ready?’” (The Madison Capital Times’ Jessie Opoien)

-- A 73-year-old dementia-stricken California man was gunned down by police in his residential neighborhood after failing to comply with officers. Authorities thought he was brandishing a weapon, they said, but the item in his hand was actually a wooden crucifix. (Travis M. Andrews)

-- Celebrity Chef Jose Andres proposed that he and Trump end their breach-of-contract legal battle and instead donate the funds to a veterans organization. The chef planned to open a restaurant in Trump’s Washington hotel but backed out after Trump said most Mexican immigrants are rapists and criminals.

This seven-bedroom home on Woodland Drive was recently purchased by Wilbur Ross, the incoming commerce secretary. (Courtesy of Homevisit)

THE TYCOON TAKEOVER:

-- “Incoming commerce secretary buys home across the street from the current commerce secretary,” by Helena Andrews-Dyer: “They call it billionaire’s row: the leafy stretch of multimillion dollar homes on Woodland Drive in D.C. that the uber-rich looking for urban privacy call home. Now the tony Massachusetts Heights neighborhood can add another famous feather to its top hat. Wilbur Ross … and his wife, Hilary, have recently purchased a … 10,000-square-foot seven-bedroom with a 12-seat movie theater and staff quarters (that) was formerly owned by philanthropist Adrienne Arsht and was listed for $12 million. … Perhaps the most interesting factoid about the incoming commerce secretary’s new 1927 Beaux-Arts estate is that is located directly across the street from the home of current Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker, who also lives on Woodland Drive. The area is a hot spot for Washington’s megarich because most of the gated homes sit back from the street, providing extra privacy and security in a locale close to the power center of downtown D.C.”

-- Government ethics officials are likely to force Gary Cohn to sell his $207 million stake in Goldman Sachs when he joins Trump’s administration as economic policy adviser, Bloomberg reports. His holdings have gained $46 million in value since Trump won the election. (Goldman shares have surged 30 percent since Trump began stocking his government with Goldman execs.)

-- The Narrative: “Trump recruits army of chief executives to battle with the system in Washington,” by Karen Tumulty: “Trump’s critics have taken aim at many of his selections from the private sector. They say that populating an administration with people of enormous wealth and myriad financial interests is not ‘draining the swamp’ as Trump had promised, but simply bringing in another species of reptile. … [And] even those who applaud the choices say that the former corporate chieftains may be in for something of a shock. Things move at their own pace in government, and often not at all. Not only do top officials have to manage a bureaucracy that was in place long before they arrived and will be there when they leave; they have to grapple with well-funded interests that do not necessarily share their goals. And they must answer to Capitol Hill.” “They have to adapt to a different set of constraints, an actual set of constraints on behavior that exist in government that don’t exist anywhere else,” said [the Brooking Institution’s] Elaine Kamarck. “Do they learn it, and roll with the punches, or are they constantly fighting it?”

-- Newsweek, “How Trump’s business ties are already jeopardizing U.S. interests,” by Kurt Eichenwald: “Given the extraordinary power [Trump] now wields, it’s obvious that foreign governments and corporations can easily curry favor, bribe or even blackmail him … Once he’s president, Trump does not need to ask for cash to be delivered to his pockets or to those of his children to cross the line into illicit activities—and possibly impeachable offenses. Abe of Japan does not know if a government holdup of Ivanka Trump’s deal with Sanei International will lead her impulsive father to call for an American military withdrawal from his country. Erdogan of Turkey has told associates he believes he must keep pressure on Trump’s business partner there to essentially blackmail the president into extraditing a political enemy. Duterte of the Philippines believes he has received approval from the president-elect to, at best, abide by or, at worst, continue to authorize the frenzied slaughter of drug users and dealers … America is on the precipice of an unprecedented threat, as allies and enemies alike calculate whether they are dealing with a president they can please merely by enriching his children.”

Stephen Miller, policy advisor with the Trump transition team, and Hope Hicks, communications director with the Trump campaign, arrive at Trump Tower. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

MORE ON THE TRUMP TOWER JOB HUNT:

-- Trump officially tapped Stephen Miller to be a senior White House policy adviser, praising his former campaign aide in a statement as playing a critical role in both his primary and general election campaign. Miller first joined Trump’s team in January and previously served as a communications aide to Jeff Sessions. (Elise Viebeck)

-- The Daily Mail’s U.S. political editor, who wrote effusively positive coverage of Trump that always got good play on the Drudge Report, was interviewed for a position in the Trump administration. Politico reports that David Martosko, whose name has been mentioned as a possible press secretary, was spotted going up the elevators at Trump Tower on Tuesday. Others say he’s being considered for several positions within the comms office.

-- Trump spokesman Katrina Pierson is seeking a White House role, CNN's Dylan Byers and Jim Acosta report. “Pierson visited Trump Tower on Tuesday for meetings with members of Trump's transition team. One source said she was there to make her pitch for the role of White House press secretary, while another said she was ‘looking at a lot of opportunities.’ Pierson – who infamously blamed both the Afghanistan invasion and 2004 death of Gold Star recipient Capt. Humayun Khan on President Obama – said she was at Trump Tower as a transition adviser."

Trump and musician Kanye West pose for media at Trump Tower in Manhattan. (Reuters/Andrew Kelly)

THE MEDIA GETS EASILY DISTRACTED BY SHINY OBJECTS:

-- Kanye West met with the president-elect for 15 minutes after weeks of reports about his severe exhaustion and hospitalization. “We’ve been friends for a long time,” Trump told reporters. Asked for more details, he said only that the two “discussed life.”

-- BREATHTAKING: ABC led "World News Tonight" with the Kanye visit, instead of the carnage in Aleppo or the nomination of Tillerson, per CNN's Brian Stelter. What would Peter Jennings, Charlie Gibson or even Diane Sawyer say about that? Can you imagine? Sad!

-- Trump also met with Vogue editor Anna Wintour yesterday. She apologized on Monday for disparaging the president-elect on a train.(New York Magazine)

-- Color from last night’s Trump rally, via a pool report by Mark Landler: “There are sporadic chants of ‘CNN sucks’ before Trump takes the stage, although an older man standing next to the press pen assures us, ‘We don't really mean it.’”

Trump jokes around with Joe Scarborough after an appearance on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" in January. (Scott Morgan/Reuters)

-- “Trump might just have made Joe Scarborough as important as he always thought he was,” by Ben Terris: “Scarborough knew he had Trump’s ear. And so, in the fall of 2015 … the MSNBC host sat him down for a lecture. Things were about to ‘get real,’ Scarborough says he told the newbie politician. It didn’t matter that they had golfed together or laughed together during Trump’s many jolly, blustering cameos on Scarborough’s freewheeling talk shows. Now he was a candidate, and ‘Morning Joe’ would have to hit him with tough questions … ‘I said, ‘Donald, here’s the deal,’ ” Scarborough recalled ... ‘We were friends before the campaign, and when the parade stops and everybody turns on you like they do in politics, we’ll be your friends after the campaign.’ It’s an acknowledgment of a coziness that drove Scarborough’s critics nuts throughout the 2016 campaign. … While much of the media has been thrown into an existential crisis by the election, Scarborough isn’t much for introspection. He says he has no regrets: not about how he covered Trump, nor about not joining the campaign. ‘I’m good here,’ he said. ‘We have influence.’”

SOCIAL MEDIA SPEED READ:

-- Scarborough's former NBC colleague, Luke Russert, lamented Trump's mastery at playing the mainstream media, especially the TV news crowd:

We may spend the next eight years pondering this tweet from Kanye West, who had previously said he might run for president in 2020:

He had this to say about his meeting:

Mike Huckabee cracked this joke about Russian moles:

Others are taking the cyberattack on America more seriously. From the former Illinois Republican congressman:

From NPR's Moscow correspondent:

Charles Grassley advised Trump and Tillerson to be cautious about Putin:

He quickly clarified that he was not expressing any doubt about confirming Tillerson, merely encouraging him to be eyes open:

Lindsey Graham indicated he will focus on Tillerson's view of Russia:

Jeff Flake seemed open to the nomination:

One way of looking at it:

Ray Lewis tweeted about his meeting with Trump:

This image offers a blistering critique of Google search results:

To catch up on Perry's record in Texas, check out this tweetstorm from the CEO of the Texas Tribune:

Rainn Wilson thought of Trump when he spotted this on a box of Cheerios:

A few more notes -- and jokes -- about Kanye's visit with Trump:

Here's our favorite:

Matt Drudge couldn't get enough:

Here's a funny image from the Trump Tower lobby:

Two scenes from Washington:

Scott Walker did some Christmas baking:

Tom Carper rang the bell for the Salvation Army:

Tim Kaine rode Metro's silver line:

Eric Swalwell posted this sketch from his courthouse wedding in October:

Finally, a great picture of the Obamas from their Christmas card:

Anastasia Lin in Hong Kong last year. (Jerome Favre/EPA)

GOOD READS FROM ELSEWHERE:

-- An outrageous gag order: The Miss World pageant is silencing an outspoken China critic (and reigning Miss World Canada) at a U.S competition. From the New York Times’ Andrew Jacobs: “After the Chinese authorities blocked the Canadian beauty queen Anastasia Lin from attending the 65th annual Miss World pageant in China last year, the event’s British organizers offered her a consolation prize, of sorts: They promised to allow her a chance to compete in the 2016 finals, which are currently underway in suburban Washington. What they did not tell her was that she could smile but not speak out publicly during the event, which is largely sponsored by Chinese companies. Over the past three weeks, as she and her fellow contestants have rehearsed for Tuesday’s finale, Ms. Lin, 26 — an actress, classically trained pianist and outspoken critic of Chinese human rights abuses — has been barred from speaking to the news media. … And last week, when a State Department official requested a meeting with Ms. Lin, to discuss the continuing harassment of her father in China, pageant executives refused to let her go.”

-- “Al Franken Faces Donald Trump and the Next Four Years,” by Mark Leibovich: “As Trump bloated into the campaign’s inescapable parade float, his supposed comic abundance became more of a crisis. Every stopgap failed in 2015 and 2016. So did every pundit assumption, and even the long-understood barriers between, say, real and fake news. Where does comedy even fit when the outrageous becomes the default? I was curious whether Trump’s election would herald a change in Franken’s approach. He was always fierce in what he describes as ‘the heaping of scorn and ridicule,’ first on ‘S.N.L.’ and later as a liberal talk-radio host and author … ‘I think this can be a moment that calls out for Al’s voice,’ said Ben Wikler of [MoveOn.org] … Franken has established himself as a legislator, he said, and it might be time for him to return to his insurgent comic roots. “Part of Al’s earlier approach to public life was swashbuckling and baiting antagonists into fights they could not win,” Wikler told me. “Humor can be a way of blasting through fear and anxiety and giving people backbone.”

-- “Who’s responsible when extremists get a platform?” by John Hermann: It would be difficult to overstate the zeal that exists for platform companies in Silicon Valley. They represent staggering opportunities, the chance to create or remake entire industries and to preside over them indefinitely, with maximum control and minimum participation or liability. It’s a platform that aspires to ‘connect the world’ but that must not be credited with changing it in the process. This line of thinking could not feel more distant from some of the alarming experiences social-media platforms foster. Facebook is not primarily understood among its billion and a half users as an attention brokerage, but that’s exactly what it is: a middleman between users and other users; between advertisers and users; between developers and users; between publishers and advertisers and their viewers and readers. ‘The platform’s value is not necessarily what it does,’ says Andrei Hagiu, [a visiting M.I.T. professor], ‘but what it enables.’ And what it enables can be enormous.

DAYBOOK:

In Trump's world: Trump hosts technology executives for a meeting at Trump Tower.

At the White House: Obama hosts two Hanukkah receptions and speaks at a My Brother's Keeper Summit.

On Capitol Hill: The Senate and House are out.

NEWS YOU CAN USE IF YOU LIVE IN D.C.:

-- A DEEP FREEZE is on its way for Thursday and Friday, the Capital Weather Gang forecasts. For now, things are slightly more mild: “Temperatures rise through the 30s this morning, and while that feels kind of chilly with a 10-15 mph wind from the northwest, we’ll be pining for such readings by tomorrow and Friday. Get out and enjoy this last day before the deep freeze, as highs reach the low-to-mid 40s under partly sunny skies, with a diminishing afternoon breeze.”

-- The chairman of the Prince George’s County liquor board resigned from his post after being arrested on DUI charges while attempting to leave the MGM National Harbor casino on opening night. His resignation comes just hours after authorities released a police report indicating he attempted to leverage his position to avoid arrest, asking officers while he was detained, “Is there any way we can make this go away?” (Lynh Bui and Arelis R. Hernández)

-- A woman was carjacked by five masked assailants while unloading groceries in Chevy Chase. Police are investigating the incident, which has unnerved residents in the upscale Northwest Washington community. (Peter Hermann)

-- Boeing is relocating its $30 billion defense division headquarters to Washington, a move that puts the airline crafter a lot closer to the man who has threatened to shutter their Air Force One program. (Christian Davenport)

-- A progressive state senator in Maryland, Cheryl Kagan, is hosting an Inauguration Day concert to raise money for liberal causes she thinks will be threatened under a Trump presidency. Proceeds will go to five national advocacy groups that promote abortion rights, civil liberties, environmental protections, gay rights and gun control. (Josh Hicks)

-- The Capitals beat the Islanders 4-2.

VIDEOS OF THE DAY:

Bill Murray and Obama played golf in the Oval Office:

This gif of Perry is still making its way around the Internet (click to watch):

If confirmed, Perry will lead the department he forgot to list during a 2012 presidential debate (click to watch that moment):

Maureen Dowd remembered having coffee with Trump in the 1980s:

An Alabama biker is being criticized as insensitive for faking an armed standoff with police as part of an elaborate engagement proposal. The officers carried stun guns, but the tone-deaf ruse played on raw emotions in a year where police-community tensions have spiked. Amy B Wang has the story. Here's the video: