MANCHIN MEETS THE DEM CAUCUS — Senate Democrats held a digital assembly Tuesday night time, their first get-together because the Sunday meltdown. And sure, JOE MANCHIN logged on.
Manchin and Majority Leader CHUCK SCHUMER basically repeated what they’ve been saying in different venues this week: The West Virginian has considerations about inflation and the debt and desires larger taxes on the wealthy, whereas Schumer outlined his new highway map to move Build Back Better and voting rights laws.
— BBB: Schumer mentioned he was urgent forward with a vote in January as a method to construct stress for a deal. In his remarks, Schumer alluded to Manchin scuttling the laws, telling colleagues, per a Democratic supply, “I know we are all frustrated at this outcome. However, we are not giving up on BBB. Period. We won’t stop working on it until we pass a bill.”
He additionally pushed again on Manchin’s argument, in a radio interview Monday, that Democrats ought to begin from scratch by means of the committee system, noting that BBB has been the topic of over 60 Senate hearings.
And the Democratic chief responded to Manchin’s considerations about inflation and the nationwide debt, citing current experiences from Goldman Sachs and Moody’s that forecast decreased development absent passage of BBB.
As for the procedural particulars of the way in which ahead, right here’s what Schumer mentioned: “In the new year, we will have a vote on the motion to proceed to the House-passed bill. The House-passed bill is the legislative vehicle available to us to begin the reconciliation debate in the Senate. At this time, it is my intention to make the Senate substitute amendment the current Senate text as published and shared with your offices, unless we are able to reach an agreement on modifications acceptable to the entire caucus ahead of that vote.”
— Voting rights: Schumer vowed to power votes on reforming Senate guidelines if the GOP blocked the laws once more in January, which is definite to occur. He mentioned that on the state stage Republicans are passing “voter suppression laws” with “only a simple majority vote” and it was unacceptable to “not allow the United States Senate to do the same.”
This is all similar to what Schumer introduced in his current Dear Colleague letter. But for the primary time since Manchin blew up all the pieces, we’re listening to some notes of optimism from Democratic senators.
For instance, after the decision, Sen. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN (D-Md.) advised Playbook, “Feeling confident that we will find a way to move forward on a revised version of our plan to expand opportunity for every American, cut the cost of prescription drugs and child care, and tackle the climate crisis.”
— President JOE BIDEN can be projecting optimism: He got here away from his speak with the opposite Joe on Sunday night time feeling good that some sort of deal will come collectively early subsequent 12 months: “Some people think maybe I’m not Irish because I don’t hold a grudge. But I want to get things done,” Biden mentioned Tuesday, including: “Sen. Manchin and I are going to get something done.” More on Biden’s optimism from WSJ’s Ken Thomas
— Rep. PRAMILA JAYAPAL is outwardly nonetheless open to … one thing. She truly spoke with Manchin on Tuesday, per WaPo’s Greg Sargent, who interviewed the chief of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. Jayapal (D-Wash.) “did seem to open the door to a way forward, though it’s a twisted and murky path.” The path, which you’ll be able to learn the piece to attempt to perceive, mainly includes getting Manchin to say precisely what he desires and going from there.
BIDEN TAKES ON OMICRON — In his Tuesday afternoon speech on the Omicron risk, Biden as soon as once more tried to string the needle between not creating panic and warning unvaccinated folks it could possibly be actually unhealthy for them in the event that they don’t get vaccinated. He tried to supply some reassurance to the demoralized lots: “This is not March of 2020. Two hundred million people are fully vaccinated. We’re prepared. We know more.”
And he outlined the administration’s plans to present 500 million free at-home checks, which Americans can order on-line without cost in January.
— WaPo’s Tyler Pager, Dan Diamond and Andrew Jeong have rundown of the remarks. This graf jumped out at us: “Biden’s speech marked the clearest distillation to date of a new message from the White House, as officials acknowledge the virus is unlikely to disappear but Americans no longer have to fully upend their daily lives even as cases rise. And it reflected the extent to which many Americans and political leaders show little appetite for the widespread shutdowns of the early pandemic period that hobbled the economy, forced millions of students into virtual learning, and sparked bitter partisan and cultural battles over how to combat the virus.”
— Joanne Kenen, a contributing editor at POLITICO, weighed in with a post-speech evaluation below a intelligent headline that summed it up neatly: “Why Biden’s Omicron Speech Won’t Break Through”
— Eric Topol, a Scripps Research scientist whose Twitter feed and Substack are must-reads if you wish to perceive the pandemic, has a superb rundown of why the Biden plan is totally insufficient within the face of the Omicron risk: “What the President Could Have Done Today to Counter the Pandemic”
Good Wednesday morning, and thanks for studying Playbook, which Mediaite declared the twenty fifth “most influential in news media” in 2021. Drop us a line and inform us what you consider their rankings: Rachael Bade, Eugene Daniels, Ryan Lizza, Tara Palmeri.
CLICKER — Chartbeat, the net site visitors analytics device, issued its annual listing of “most engaging” tales Tuesday: the tales from this 12 months that individuals spent essentially the most time actively studying and interacting with on pages. The high 5 have been:
1) “‘I just want to find 11,780 votes’: In extraordinary hour-long call, Trump pressures Georgia secretary of state to recalculate the vote in his favor,” by WaPo’s Amy Gardner
2) “Comparing the Covid-19 vaccines developed by Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson,” by Stat’s Helen Branswell
3) “‘We feel incredibly betrayed’: Thousands of Guardsmen forced to vacate Capitol,” by POLITICO’s Lara Seligman, Natasha Bertrand and Andrew Desiderio
4) “‘We found a baby on the subway – now he’s our son,’” by BBC’s Lucy Wallis
5) “Trump went ‘ballistic’ after being tossed off Twitter,” by POLITICO’s Gabby Orr, Daniel Lippman, Tina Nguyen and Sam Stein
Just sayin’: POLITICO had three of the highest 10 tales, and 9 within the high 50.
BIDEN UNDERWATER — A brand new POLITICO/Morning Consult ballot finds Biden with lagging approval scores on various key points dealing with his administration. The president’s general approval sits at 43%, along with his highest mark coming for his dealing with of the pandemic at 48% and his lowest for immigration at 35%. Toplines … Crosstabs
BIDEN’S WEDNESDAY:
— 9:30 a.m.: The president will obtain the President’s Daily Brief.
— 10:30 a.m.: Biden will meet with the Supply Chain Disruptions Task Force and private-sector CEOs, with a media spray on the high.
VP KAMALA HARRIS’ WEDNESDAY:
— 5:25 p.m.: The VP and second gentleman DOUG EMHOFF will depart D.C. en path to Los Angeles.
Press secretary JEN PSAKI will transient at 12:30 p.m. The White House Covid-19 response crew and public well being officers will transient at 3 p.m.
THE HOUSE and THE SENATE are out.
PHOTO OF THE DAY
THE PANDEMIC
HOARDING VS. (BURDEN) SHARING — TONY BLINKEN held a digital assembly with international ministers Tuesday in regards to the Omicron risk and introduced $580 million in new funding for worldwide organizations preventing the pandemic. But in response to an administration official, the secretary of State additionally relayed a message that boiled all the way down to this: “We need you all to do more.”
The White House is more and more annoyed that the burden of tackling a worldwide pandemic is falling disproportionately on the U.S. and not sufficient on different giant, rich nations. At the identical time, stress is rising on the U.S. to do much more because the pandemic drags on and, in lots of low-income nations, will get worse.
Outside teams that focus on distributing vaccines all over the world have two essential gripes:
- They need the U.S. to discover a method to donate extra photographs than it already has.
- They need the administration to power Moderna to share its vaccine recipe so different nations could make their very own and not have to attend for them to be despatched.
The administration factors out that it’s already promised 1.2 billion doses to be distributed globally, with greater than 335 million already doled out to 111 nations in response to the administration. In phrases of forcing Moderna’s hand, Biden officers say their palms are tied by the agreements the Trump administration made with the corporate concerning its mental property.
The backdrop of all that is the query of hoarding. As variants unfold worldwide, can rich nations defend their very own folks whereas making certain that nations with drastically decrease vaccination charges get the billions of photographs they want?
“There is a zero-sum game in terms of total vaccine supply, where you have rich countries hoarding vaccines for their own citizens, and that is leaving very few vaccines for the rest of the world,” ROBBIE SILVERMAN at Oxfam advised Playbook.
This all places the Biden administration in a politically precarious place. Expectations are excessive (probably too excessive) for an administration that is aware of it will probably’t do it on their lonesome, however can be caught with different rich nations it says aren’t pulling their weight.
The longer poorer nations stay unvaxxed, the higher situations for the virus to thrive. And the longer it thrives, the extra probably that one other variant (perhaps another harmful than Omicron) reaches the United States, bogging Biden down even additional on this Covid quagmire.
THAT’S BILLION WITH A ‘B’ — The Secret Service introduced Tuesday that “criminals stole close to $100 billion in pandemic relief funds. … The stolen funds were diverted by fraudsters from the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program, the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program and another program set up to dole out unemployment assistance funds nationwide,” CNBC’s Eamon Javers and Scott Zamost report. “More than $2.3 billion in stolen funds have been recovered so far, resulting in the arrest of more than 100 suspects who span the spectrum from individuals to organized groups.”
CONGRESS
MCCONNELL MISCHIEF-MAKING — Senate Minority Leader MITCH MCCONNELL is brazenly courting Manchin to change sides. “It is hardly a secret, Mr. McConnell said, that he has wooed Mr. Manchin for years, only to have Mr. Manchin, a lifelong Democrat, resist. And Mr. Manchin this week said he ‘hoped’ there was still a place for him in the party,” NYT’s Carl Hulse writes. “But Mr. McConnell seemed to see the clash over the spending measure as potentially providing a new opening for a party switch that would both restore him as majority leader and shift the ground in Washington. And he is also not against stirring up trouble for Democrats however and whenever he can. ‘Obviously we would love to have him on our team,’ said Mr. McConnell. ‘I think he’d be more comfortable.’”
POTENTIAL MCCONNELL SUCCESSOR EYES THE EXITS — NYT’s Jonathan Martin scoops that Sen. JOHN THUNE (R-S.D.) “is seriously considering retiring after next year, a prospect that has set off an intensifying private campaign from other Republicans urging him to seek reelection. … A combination of family concerns and [DONALD] TRUMP’s enduring grip on the Republican Party have prompted the senator, who is in his third term, to tell associates and reporters in his home state that 2022 could be his last year in Congress.”
RAKING IN THE DOUGH — Manchin’s political motion committee noticed an uptick in company contributions forward of his announcement that he wouldn’t vote for BBB, in response to CNBC’s Brian Schwartz and Jacob Pramuk. “Manchin’s leadership PAC, Country Roads, received 17 contributions from corporations in October and 19 last month. None of the four months prior to October saw as many corporate contributions.” Some of the donors included American Express, Goldman Sachs, Lockheed Martin and insurance coverage corporations like UnitedHealth Group and Blue Cross Blue Shield.
KNOWING DAN CRENSHAW — The Texas Republican consultant has drawn some current headlines for a top quality few in his occasion possess lately: the willingness to criticize different Republicans, at the same time as he stays removed from a Never Trumper. “I think politics has changed radically, where people want a freewheeling, authentic person,” he tells Olivia Beavers in a brand new profile. “Fine, that’s good. And that’s certainly what I deliver. But you also need to be thoughtful and correct in what you say.”
ALL POLITICS
TEAM OF TRUMPERS — DAVID MCCORMICK, a hedge fund government gearing as much as run for Senate in Pennsylvania, is bringing on a slew of former Trump advisers, Alex Isenstadt experiences this morning.
Among them is HOPE HICKS, “who has been helping McCormick arrange meetings and reach out to people ahead of his anticipated early 2021 announcement [and] is working on her first campaign since being a top staffer on Trump’s 2016 effort. Two other prominent top staffers in the Trump administration — STEPHEN MILLER and CLIFF SIMS — are also expected to serve in advisory roles.”
John Cornyn texted Joe Manchin on Tuesday asking him to change events, however didn’t hear again.
WaPo reviewed Bill and Hillary Clinton’s MasterClasses and was shocked “that hers is nearly a third longer. … Less astonishing (okay, not astonishing at all) is that Hillary appears to have prepared far harder for her class.”
Mia Love apparently doesn’t know the difference between Virginia and West Virginia.
Barbara Lee and Nicole Malliotakis have Covid. So does Meena Harris.
Dr. Mehmet Oz’s scores are plummeting forward of his present’s finale.
ASSIGNMENT EDITOR — Dan Pfeiffer wants to know: “Where are the news stories about stocked shelves and presents arriving on time?”
MEDIA MOVES — Dylan Wells is becoming a member of USA Today as a Congress, campaigns and politics reporter. She at present is a nationwide political correspondent at National Journal. … Paula Friedrich is becoming a member of POLITICO as an interactive developer. She beforehand was a newsroom developer for the San Francisco Chronicle. …
… Fatima Hussein is becoming a member of the AP to cowl the Treasury Department. She beforehand was a employee security and environmental regulation reporter for Bloomberg. Talking Biz News … Rachel Glasberg is now a producer for NBC’s “Stay Tuned.” She beforehand was a writing affiliate producer at MSNBC. Talking Biz News
FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — Anja Manuel will probably be government director on the Aspen Strategy Group, the place she was beforehand director. She is taking up from Nicholas Burns, who’s stepping all the way down to turn into U.S. ambassador to China.
TRANSITION — Kate Bellino is now deputy press secretary for Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.). She most lately was workers assistant/comms assistant for Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.).
WELCOME TO THE WORLD — Sean Downey, associate at Hilltop Public Solutions and a Cory Booker and Barack Obama marketing campaign alum, and Julie McClain Downey, VP of strategic comms at American Bridge twenty first Century and a Planned Parenthood, Booker and EMILY’s List alum, welcomed Lucy Jill Downey on Monday. Pics
— Lucien Zeigler, analysis director for the Saudi-U.S. Trade Group, and Sophie Pyle Zeigler, CEO of Rosé Media, welcomed Caroline “Coco” Elaine Zeigler on Monday. Pic
HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Charlie Peters, founding editor of the Washington Monthly (9-5!) … Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) … Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.) … Diane Sawyer … Jamie Kirchick … Mike Needham of Sen. Marco Rubio’s (R-Fla.) workplace (4-0) … DJ Nordquist … EEI’s Rich Ward … Matt Manda … CNN’s Daniella Diaz … Heather Holdridge of Real Voices Media … Adam Verdugo … Scott Sadler … Libby Rosenbaum of the American Council of Young Political Leaders … Cherylyn Harley LeBon … Maria Thorbourne … LexStrat’s Marc Raimondi … Zack Carroll (3-0) … AEI’s Rachel Manfredi … Beau Phillips … Jake Perry of Jake Perry + Partners … DCCC’s Karen Defilippi … Roxanne Stachowski … NPR’s Michele Kelemen … Ascent Media’s Matthew Mazzone … McGuireWoods Consulting’s Mark Bowles … Paul Wolfowitz … former Rep. Bill Lipinski (D-Ill.) … Mary Baskerville … POLITICO’s Kristin Longe … Chris Austin … Eugene Steuerle … Andrew Egger … WTOP’s Matt Small … Nick Thomas … former Energy Secretary Ernie Moniz … Maeve Coyle … Mary Kirtley Waters … Landon Heid … Hank Sheinkopf
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