Stay tuned after the show for a message from pharma.

Good Wednesday morning. I'm Anna Palmer and welcome to your Politico Playbook audio briefing.

And I'm Jake Sherman. Breaking overnight, Pfizer and Biotech's COVID-19 vaccine has won authorization in the UK.

The two-shot vaccine is being reviewed by the FDA and the U.S.

where a similar authorization could come later this month and roll out before the end of

the year.

Thank God.

Politico has a great story this morning about how Donald Trump has been asking the

FDA why Europe is beating the U.S. on the vaccine.

If there's one thing we know about December in Washington is that it gets really,

really interesting every year without fail,

chaos and madness on the brink of a holiday. Let's break it down. The president is considering

preemptively pardoning most of his immediate family. Prosecutors have been pursuing an investigation

into potential bribery in connection with an effort to secure a pardon from Donald Trump.

Attorney General Bill Barr appointed John Durham to be a special counsel to investigate the origins

of the Russia probe. Barr also gave an interview to the AP, saying that the DOJ has not found

any evidence of widespread fraud in the 2020 presidential election.

A DOJ spokesman reached out to us late yesterday to say this.

Quote, some media outlets have incorrectly reported that the department has concluded

its investigation of election fraud and announced an affirmative finding of no fraud in

the election. That is not what

the Associated Press reported, nor what the Attorney General stated. The department will continue

...