Coons tests positive for Covid- the third senator to announce a positive test in less than a week

Sen COONS tests positive for COVID: "“In recent weeks I have been tested for COVID-19 regularly, both with rapid tests and PCR tests, and last night I got bad news – I tested positive."

Says he has "minimal symptoms so far:

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Trump, in an interview with Fox News the same evening, said he was both “surprised” and “appreciative” of the president's acknowledgment, adding it is difficult to criticize Biden after receiving recognition.

"It is a little tough to be overly critical now because he just thanked us for the vaccine and thanked me for what I did," Trump reportedly said. "You know, that's a first — so it is very tough for me to be overly critical now."

The 45th president continued that he believes Biden’s remarks “were a terrific thing” that will “make a lot of people happy.”

"I think he did something very good," Trump said. "You know, it has to be a process of healing in this country, and that will help a lot."

Trump told Fox News that he has received a booster dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, which Biden acknowledged in his speech, and encouraged people to “embrace” vaccination. But he was critical of vaccine mandates.

https://thehill.com/changing-america/well-being/prevention-cures/587073-trump-admits-he-suddenly-finds-it-very-tough-to

Trump pushes back on Candace Owens: 'People aren't dying when they take the vaccine'

Former President Trump in an interview with conservative media personality Candace Owens pushed back over her claims undermining the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines.

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“Yet more people have died under COVID this year,” Owens told Trump. “By the way, under Joe Biden, than under you and more people took the vaccine this year. So people are questioning how—”

“Oh no, the vaccines work, but some people aren’t the ones. The ones who get very sick and go to the hospital are the ones that don’t take the vaccine. But it’s still their choice. And if you take the vaccine, you’re protected,” Trump told Owens.

“Look, the results of the vaccine are very good, and if you do get it, it’s a very minor form,” Trump continued. “People aren’t dying when they take the vaccine.”

https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/public-global-health/587079-trump-pushes-back-on-candace-owens-people-arent-dying

Herschel Walker says that Congressman John Lewis was “one of the greatest SENATORS that’s ever been,” and that the Voting Rights Bill “doesn’t fit what John Lewis stood for.”

Kamala Harris tested negative for the coronavirus after having been in “close contact” with a staff member who later tested positive, the vice president’s office said Wednesday. The staff member, who worked with Harris on Tuesday, received the positive test on Wednesday morning, according to Harris’ chief spokesperson, Symone Sanders. “This staff member is fully vaccinated and boosted and did not experience symptoms,” Sanders’ statement said. Harris will be tested again on Friday and Monday, and will continue with her daily schedule as planned for now, in keeping with guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/vice-president-kamala-harris-tests-negative-for-covid-19-after-staffer-tests-positive

Joseph Morrison has his eyes on freedom after more than 400 days — 438, by his attorney's count — behind bars. And, by his attorney's recounting, those eyes were fighting back tears.

The 27-year-old Munith man charged with providing material support to a terrorist act — the alleged plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer last year — was granted a significantly lower bond on Monday during a hearing to consider a series of motions at Jackson County's 4th Circuit Court.

Circuit Judge Thomas Wilson, departing from the district court's decision to keep Morrison at a $150,000 bond, granted Morrison a $5,000 cash or surety bond Monday with a GPS tether and a warning not to go more than 50 feet outside his home.

Morrison told his attorney, Nicholas Somberg, he was holding back tears at the news, Somberg told the Free Press as Morrison, still clad in an orange jumpsuit and handcuffs looked out calmly from the courthouse elevator behind Somberg.

https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2021/12/20/whitmer-plot-suspect-joseph-morrison-bond/8969541002/

Fox News is standing firmly behind Jesse Watters, after Dr. Anthony Fauci called for his firing on Tuesday morning.

In a statement, the network defended the co-host of The Five — arguing that the remarks Watters made at the Turning Point USA summit this past weekend regarding Fauci were wholly misinterpreted.

“Now you’re going for the kill shot. The kill shot with an ambush is deadly because he doesn’t see it coming,” Watters said. He then proposed a talking point and added, “Boom, he is dead! He is dead!”

Fox News said it reviewed the complete remarks and called it “more than clear” that Watters was speaking metaphorically when he used the words “kill shot,” and did not actually encourage violence against the infectious disease expert.

“Based on watching the full clip and reading the entire transcript, it’s more than clear that Jesse Watters was using a metaphor for asking hard-hitting questions to Dr. Fauci about gain-of-function research and his words have been twisted completely out of context,” Fox News said, in its statement.

https://www.mediaite.com/news/fox-news-vigorously-defends-jesse-watters-after-fauci-calls-for-his-firing-kill-shot-remark-taken-completely-out-of-context/

This week, an international panel of art experts gathered at the British Museum to discuss a work whose very existence one attendee described as “a dream” — a previously unknown drawing by the Renaissance master Albrecht Dürer that some believe could fetch $50 million at market.

That would be quite a markup for the diminutive pen-and-ink drawing, which last sold around 2016 at an estate sale in Concord for $30.

The drawing, titled “The Virgin and Child with a Flower on a grassy Bench,” is being heralded as one of the most significant finds in memory. About the size of a children’s board book, the China ink drawing depicts an intimate scene where a seated Mary, dressed in flowing robes, holds the Christ child, who observes her intently.

“I was completely astonished,” said Christof Metzger, a Dürer specialist and chief curator at the Albertina Museum in Vienna, which houses one of the world’s most important troves of the artist’s drawings. “For me there’s absolutely no doubt that this is an original by Albrecht Dürer from around 1503.”

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/12/18/arts/drers-hand-global-market/