New York Post, Tuesday, December 1, 2020
nypost.com
Federal Communications
Commission Chairman Ajit
Pai, who helped undo net
neutrality rules, said he will
step down on Jan. 20, the day
President-elect Joe Biden is
inaugurated.
“It has been the honor of a
lifetime to serve at the Fed-
eral Communications Com-
mission, including as Chair-
man of the FCC over the past
four years,” Pai said in a state-
ment issued on Monday.
“I am grateful to President
Trump for giving me the oppor-
tunity to lead the agency in 2017,
to President Obama for ap-
pointing me as a Commissioner
in 2012, and to Senate Majority
Leader McConnell and the Sen-
ate for twice confirming me. To
be the first Asian-American to
chair the FCC has been a partic-
ular privilege. As I often say:
only in America.”
Pai stepping down would
clear Biden to appoint a new
chair, which he may do to re-
store the net neutrality rules,
which forced Internet service
providers to treat all data the
same and not allow them to
slow down or speed up traffic
to and from Web sites.
Pai, appointed FCC chair
by Trump in 2017, also over-
saw deregulation efforts, the
T-Mobile-Sprint merger and
paved the way for cellphone
companies to introduce 5G
wireless.Mark Moore, WiresFCC chief
is logging
off in Jan.
Ajit PAi
Will step down on Jan. 20.‘Zero’ chAnce‘Zero’ chAnce‘Zero’ chAnce‘Zero’ chAnce: :
Senate Republicans Senate Republicans Senate Republicans
say they won’t vote to say they won’t vote to
confirm Neera Tanden confirm Neera Tanden
as director of the cru-as director of the cru-
cial Office of Manage-cial Office of Manage-cial Office of Manage-
ment and Budget.APelection baselessly suggesting that
Russian hackers had switched
votes from Clinton to Trump.
“Why would hackers hack in
unless they could change results?
What’s the point?” she specu-
lated, suggesting this was why
“Trump was as surprised as ev-
eryone else” by his win.
Greenwald pointed to a Nov. 25,
2016, tweet in which Tanden shared
an article promoting the notion
that presidential electors ignore
their states’ votes, citing the emolu-
ments clause to claim Trump could
not be made president unless he
sold off his companies.“Imp story here on Electors and
constitutional violation of the
emoluments clause,” she tweeted.
Her selection on Monday as
Biden’s OMB chief, a hugely im-
portant role, quickly went down
in flames as Republicans said
there was no chance she would be
confirmed by a GOP-controlled
Senate.
Josh Holmes, former chief of staff
to Senate Majority Leader Mitch
McConnell (R-Ky.), speculated on
Twitter that Tanden’s nomination
was a “sacrifice to the confirmation
gods,” while Garrett Ventry, a
former adviser to the Senate Judici-ary Committee’s GOP majority,
said it would be “a funeral.”
Tanden would need 51 votes in
the Senate to become chief of the
OMB. Democrats control 48 seats
but are hoping to pick up two
more in the Georgia Senate run-
off elections on Jan. 5.
Drew Brandewie , a spokesman
for Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas),
put her chances at “zero.”
“Neera Tanden, who has an
endless stream of disparaging
comments about the Republican
Senators’ whose votes she’ll need,
stands zero chance of being con-
firmed,” he wrote Monday.By EBony BowdEnNeera Tanden, President-elect
Joe Biden’s appointee as director
of the Office of Management and
Budget, spread baseless conspir-
acy theories after the 2016 elec-
tion insisting that Hillary Clinton
lost to President Trump because
Russian hackers flipped votes.
Tanden, 50, who is president of
the liberal think tank Center for
American Progress and a longtime
Clinton loyalist, served as an un-
paid adviser during Clinton’s 2016
White House bid and repeatedly
claimed in the weeks after
Trump’s victory that he won only
because of Kremlin operatives.
In a series of tweets, some still
online Monday, Tanden claimed
the “Russians did enough damage
to affect more than 70k votes in 3
states,” referring to Clinton’s los-
ing margin in Michigan, Pennsyl-
vania and Wisconsin.
As first reported by Intercept co-
founder Glenn Greenwald, Tan-
den began just days after the 2016‘Rushing’ roulette car wrecks
Speeding drivers — one
with a hooded ghoul painted
on his car — killed one and
hurt two more in a pair of un-
related smashups overnight.
A 22-year-old in a car em-
blazoned with the Ghostface
antagonist from the “Scream”
film series blew a red light and
slammed into a ride-share ve-
hicle in Brooklyn at around
12:30 a.m. Monday, accordingto police, sending a passenger
flying from the for-hire vehi-
cle and landing her in the hos-
pital in critical condition.
The Charger driver, in sta-
ble condition, was taken to the
same hospital. He will likely
be charged in connection to
the incident, police said.
And at around 10:30 p.m.
Sunday, a 20-year-old driver,
who may have been racing onthe Brooklyn-Queens Ex-
pressway, lost control and
rammed his Nissan Altima
into a concrete support pillar
near 150th Street, police said.
Both men in the car were
rushed to Jamaica Hospital
Medical Center, where the uni-
dentified passenger was pro-
nounced dead, authorities said.
The driver was listed in critical
condition. Amanda Woods‘Polar Bears’ will skip dip
The “Polar Bears” will be hi-
bernating this New Year’s Day.
The coronavirus pandemic
and mounting efforts to stave
off a second wave of infections
have sunk Coney Island’s an-
nual plunge into the frigid wa-
ters of the Atlantic Ocean, or-
ganizers said Monday.
“While we are deeply disap-
pointed that our great New
Year’s tradition will not be tak-ing place in 2021, we know this
is the right decision to make
for the health and safety of our
members, thousands of at-
tendees and tens of thousands
of spectators who show up for
this event every January 1st,”
said Dennis Thomas, presi-
dent of the Coney Island Polar
Bear Club.
“We will be back bigger and
stronger in 2022,” he vowed.In a normal winter, thou-
sands would line the beach at
Coney Island to take a dip in
the water amid typically freez-
ing conditions as one way to
ring in the new year — and to
help raise money for charity.
Thomas said the group hopes
New Yorkers will continue to
contribute. Donations can be
made at polarbearclub.org.
Nolan Hicks