Good morning, this is Brooke Howard with the Daily Beast. It's Thursday, November 12th, and these are the top stories the Chi Chi T is watching right now. Well, President Trump still has not conceded in the election and pretty much refuses to do so. For senior officials told the Daily Beast that his national security adviser Robert O'Brien is enabling the mayhem.
O'Brien once viewed as a potential check on Trump's erratic national security demands, endorsed the installation of a pair of Trumpists at the Pentagon's highest levels, while a defense secretary O'Brien has long opposed was fired by a tweet. One official claimed that O'Brien has been supportive of a peaceful transfer of power, joking in a Monday event about Trump's losses and directing his staff to begin drafting transition materials. But three other officials told the Daily Beast that O'Brien has emerged as one of Trump's biggest enablers at a decisive moment, supporting the president's bid to retain power, even though it is being waged through a nationwide disinformation campaign. One national security official said, quote, if you even mentioned Biden's name, you'd be fired.
President Trump's refusal to get into the fact that Joe Biden has won the election is likely to prolong the pandemic and put American lives at risk. That's what multiple current senior officials working on the federal government's coronavirus response told the Daily Beast. Days after the election results became clear, Trump has ordered his administration to block standard transition work designed to bring the incoming president's team up to speed. When it comes to the pandemic, the impact could be massive.
Officials and the Trump administration working the COVID vaccine process have been unable to communicate with Biden's new COVID-19 task force about what plans they already had in place for distribution. While close coordination on those topics, current officials say Biden's team could face significant delays in getting the vaccine out to the public, with officials still trying to finalize a cohesive operation for who gets the vaccine first and when it's vital for the outgoing and incoming administrations to be on the same page. Instead, they're not even talking. President-elect Joe Biden has tapped longtime adviser Ron Kline to serve as his chief of staff in the White House.
Kline is a veteran political and policy operative, well-known in Washington. He is also a familiar face to Biden. They've worked together off and on since the late 1980s when Kline served as a top aide to the then-chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. The Democratic operative also previously served as Biden's chief of staff when he was vice president, and he took point on the Obama administration's handling of the Ebola crisis.
Kline has been particularly critical of President Trump's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. The one-time leader of the Proud Boys' most paramilitary arm is now trying to rebrand the far-right street fighting group as a more explicitly racist entity. It's the latest headache for an organization currently in denial about President Trump's reelection loss. Kyle Chapman was once the leader of the fraternal order of the Alt Knights, essentially the frontline shock troops of the group, known for taking part in fights across the country.
The Proud Boys founder even set in 2017 that he considered naming Chapman president of the entire organization. But that was while Trump was on the rise. Now with the ultra-nationalist group scrambling in the wake of Trump's loss, Chapman is threatening an overthrow of the organization to make the Proud Boys even more explicitly hateful. Chapman, who did not return a request for comment, announced his attempt to take over on Monday night.
An up-and-coming Dallas rapper was chased and gunned down on a busy highway on Wednesday morning. Melvin Noble, who goes by the name of Mothry, was approached on I-35 East by another driver who was carrying a gun just before noon police said. Noble got out of his car and ran when the suspect approached, but the gunman fired several shots and struck the rapper multiple times. Noble was later pronounced dead at a local hospital.
A bystander was also struck by gunfire, but suffered none like threatening injuries. Police say they do not yet know if the shooting was targeted, and a manhunt is still under way for the suspect. A California man is seeking a restraining order against his neighbors over what he has described as a ruthless bullying campaign. The bullying includes children's chalk drawings, Biden chants, and a stolen Trump sign.
The Sacramento Bee reports that Michael Mason, who moved to Rockland over the summer, said the tensions began in late July when he claims his neighbors sent their kids to write, quote, "'Black Lives Matter, Gay Pride, Wear a Mask and chalk in front of his house,' which he considered harassment. The dispute boiled over last weekend when Joe Biden was declared president-elect and police were called in to diffuse the situation, as Mason said his neighbors were aiming pro-Biden chanting at his house. Mason had his request for a temporary restraining order denied Wednesday, but there are plans for a civil hearing later this month. That's all for this morning.
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