President Donald Trump on Monday announced by tweet that Attorney General William Barr submitted his resignation letter and that he would be leaving office one month ahead of his expected departure. Trump claimed, “Our relationship has been a very good one, he has done an outstanding job!” even though the resignation came after weeks of reporting that Trump was itching to fire Barr, angry that he didn’t echo the President’s demonstrably false claims of mass illegal voting. Trump also announced that Deputy Attorney General Jeff Rosen would take over Barr’s duties. Barr’s resignation letter, akin to a love letter to the President, was filled with praise for Trump. Barr lauded him for a “historic” record, “accomplished …in the face of relentless implacable resistance.” He spent much of his letter attacking the President’s critics and exaggerating his accomplishments in a manner very similar to Trump himself. Mr. Barr leaves behind a legacy marred by his obvious political loyalty to Trump in an office that is meant to be non-partisan, leading his critics to characterize him as the President’s personal lawyer rather than the nation’s top prosecutor. We’ll be examining Barr’s legacy in more detail on our program.

In other news, the US Food and Drug Administration’s vaccine safety panel has deemed a second company’s product to be safe and effective. Moderna, a U.S. company that uses a similar technology to Pfizer-BioNTech to develop its vaccine has passed the FDA’s initial step that all but ensures formal emergency approval. The FDA is expected to make its decision by Friday after which Moderna has plans to deliver 6 million doses. Although surveys indicate that American vaccine skepticism is falling, the Kaiser Family Foundation reported this week that about a quarter of all Americans vow not to take the shots. Vaccine skeptics include African Americans, rural white Americans and Republicans who likely have different reasons for their reticence. Internationally western nations have sparked an “arms race” for vaccines clearing out stocks before poorer nations can access them. In fact, some nations are hoarding supplies that far outnumber their populations, in particular Canada, which has reserved enough vaccines for four times the number of residents. The US is close to procuring twice as many vaccine doses as residents.  

The death toll from Covid-19 continues to rise, hitting the grim milestone of 300,000, with 1 American dying every minute from the virus. The past month has seen a whopping 50,000 deaths alone. The Trump administration has taken a vaccine-only approach to the disease and while hope is on the horizon, there are likely to be hundreds of thousands more dead before the vaccines reach enough people to stop the spread. The disease has spread like wildfire through the White House and Trump’s orbit, sickening untold numbers of people. Among them is